A careful perusal of the CCTV installed near the temple by the special police team revealed that that the temple was vandalised by Gyarsa Prajjapati.
Team Clarion
BHOPAL – Tension gripped Bamori town in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna district after an idol was found desecrated in Shiva Temple earlier this month.
An FIR was filed against seven Muslims after the idol was uprooted and thrown outside the temple. The incident angered the Hindu community leading to protests and road blockades. There were demands of the immediate arrest of the culprits.
According to Bamori police station in-charge Aurovind Gaud, the locals suspected involvement of six-seven Muslims in the incident. Accordingly, on February 1, police lodged an FIR against seven Muslims – Anwar Khan, Bafati, Shahrukh, Bittu, Raees, Zeeshan and Rehan, based on a complaint from one Saurabh Kirar.
Based on the FIR, five Muslims were arrested, but further investigations revealed that the real culprit was a Hindu.
Guna Superintendent of Police Sanjeev Kumar Singh set up a special team to probe the matter. A careful perusal of the CCTV installed near the temple by the special police team revealed that that the idol was vandalised by Gyarsa Prajjapati, 40, who used to live in a crematorium ground of the town.
Failing to get his prayers fulfilled, Prajjapati uprooted the idols while drunk, police said on Saturday. The culprit said that the act was provoked by his impending marital status.
Immediately after the desecration of the idol, police forces were deployed in the town to ensure that the incident did not flare up communal strife in the area.
Failing to get married despite praying for it several times, Prajjapati, a native of Bamauri, went to the temple in an inebriated state and vandalised it, the police said
“On the night of January 31, he (the accused) had consumed too much alcohol, due to which he got angry and at around 2 o’clock in the night, he picked up a stone lying outside the temple and threw it on the idols of Lord Shiva and Nandi, due to which the idols got damaged. It was broken,” a press release by the Guna police said.
The accused is addicted to drinking alcohol and ganja, and often sleeps near the temple. He was reportedly nowhere to be seen since the incident of January 31 night, making him the top suspect. He later confessed to his crime, after being arrested on February 10.
