On Thursday (10th October), the idol of Goddess Durga was found vandalised at the Nampally Exhibition Grounds in Hyderabad city of Telangana.
According to reports, the attack on the Hindu Puja mandap occurred during the Devi Sharan Navaratri celebrations in the city. On learning about the incident, cops from Begum Bazar police station reached the scene and conducted an inspection.
A video surfaced on social media, showcasing the extent of damage caused to the puja mandap.
The idol of Maa Durga has been vandalized in Nampally Ground. It falls under the jurisdiction of the Begum Bazar Police Station.
— Abhishek Agarwal 🇮🇳 (@AbhishekOfficl) October 11, 2024
When I raised my voice for the Bhagyalaxmi Temple, I was served a notice through 'X' and my handle was restricted. But I won’t back down.
This is… pic.twitter.com/QqaglpxTqd
From the video, which has not been disputed, it seems the extent of the damage was not limited to the Mandap itself, but also the Murti of Goddess Durga. In the video, it is visible that the arm of the Murti has been broken by the criminal who vandalised the Mandap.
According to a Telugu Hindustan Times report, the miscreant first disconnected the electricity lines and then destroyed CCTVs. Following that, they damaged the barricades, and the arm of the idol of the Hindu deity. The attackers also threw away Puja paraphernalia.
Investigating the matter, the Hyderabad police issued a statement to the media. DCP, Central Zone Akshahsh Yadav says, “In the morning around 6:00 am we got a call that the Durga Mata idol which has been kept in the exhibition ground, the right hand has been damaged and the ‘prasad’ and other items kept at the feet of the idol were scattered. Immediately the team reached the spot in the morning and looked for the evidence, we checked CCTV footage and around 8:15 pm we caught one accused. The name of the accused is Krishnaiah Goud…He is a vagabond…He came to this pandal in the morning since he was feeling hungry and while searching for food he disturbed the Prasadam and in that, the idol got damaged. This incident happened because there was negligence on the part of the organizers…We have booked a case against the organizers…”
#WATCH | Hyderabad, Telangana: DCP, Central Zone Akshahsh Yadav says, "In the morning around 6:00 am we got a call that the Durga Mata idol which has been kept in the exhibition ground, the right hand has been damaged and the 'prasad' and other items kept at the feet of the idol… https://t.co/Omskp4nvEL pic.twitter.com/dbcUvBCt41
— ANI (@ANI) October 11, 2024
The police have arrested one Krishnaiah Goud for the vandalism and booked the organisers for the lapse in security measures.
While the police arrested the accused, the statement by the police raises more questions than it answers.
The police have claimed that Krishnaiah Goud was hungry and looking for food. It was in the process of looking for food that the idol was desecrated and the mandap vandalised.
The images that have emerged from the Mandap and the information reported by Hindustan Times, however, raise questions.
The first and foremost question is if Krishnaiah Goud was a ‘vagabond’ (homeless and jobless), hungry and looking for food, how did the Murti itself get desecrated in the process of looking for food? If one were to guess the typical behaviour of a hungry homeless person looking for food, one would imagine that he would break into the pandal, take the Prasad and either leave with it or eat that Prasad.
What would make a homeless hungry person looking for food reach out to the Murti and break an arm of the Murti?
Further, if the person was hungry and looking for food, why was the Prasad clearly scattered in the Mandap instead of either consumed or taken along with the vandal?
The police statement also does not explain how the “vagabond”, which is essentially a homeless person, disconnects the electric lines and the CCTV before looking for food.
One would assume that the version of the police, where they say the vandal was merely a homeless person looking for food, is what they have learnt in the course of the investigation after the accused was arrested. In the absence of an explanation from the police, it could be assumed that this was the reason the accused himself gave the police after his arrest by the police.
The statement from the police, however, does not debunk any of the assertions made in the Hindustan Times report. While the police certainly say there is no “communal angle”, they fail to explain why in the process of looting food, the vandal desecrated the idol of Goddess Durga. It is rather obvious that it was a deliberate act and the arm of the idol did not simply break by accident while looking for food which was kept in the form of Prasad on the floor, much lower than the Murti itself. From the video, one can conclude that the vandal would have to specifically make an effort to reach the arm of the Deity to break it.
While there appears no indication to believe yet that the police arrested the wrong person, the statement by the police leads to more questions than it answers. Given the significance of the festival and the grave crime of desecrating the faith of the Hindus, these questions deserve answers from the Hyderabad police.
