Idols of the Hindu deity were found vandalised in Jharia village in Hooghly district of West Bengal ahead of the Hindu festival of Durga Puja. The development was confirmed on social media by BJP spokesperson Amit Malviya on Saturday. In a tweet, he said, “In Jharia village (under Goghat PS in Hooghly), idols of Maa Durga, Lakshmi, and Saraswati were found desecrated raped and defiled.”
He has accused the Goghat police of inaction in the case. Amit Malviya added, ‘Despite the police offering baseless help of arresting and punishing the perpetrators to the enraged villagers, it is all too predictable that this case, like the other countless cases, that don’t demand the exoneration of a TMC offender, will be relegated to the tortuous, cyclical farce of an investigation,” Amit Malvia added.
The BJP spokesperson had shared a video of the incident from his X handle. In the video, freshly carved idols of Goddess Durga could be seen in a destroyed state. Amit Malviya had lashed out at the Mamata Banerjee government over appeasement politics. He concluded, “If even our Goddesses aren’t safe, what hope remains for women of Bengal, who embody their divine essence?” he concluded.
This is not the first case of idol vandalism that has come to light from West Bengal. Earlier in May this year, three Hindu temples were desecrated by unidentified miscreants in Dhupguri in the Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal. The local Hindus protested against the incident and blocked a highway, demanding strict action against the accused. In a similar case, a tense situation occurred in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh, as a Ganesh Chaturthi procession was met with stone-melting. The incident occurred as devotees were transporting the idol of Lord Ganesh to a pandal for the establishment when the procession came under attack near the Mochipura area.
According to the media reports, the first stone struck the idol itself, with stones hitting police vehicles that were escorting the procession. The police have lodged FIRs against both the accused and the victim parties. Three individuals have been arrested and a complaint has been filed against approximately 150 unidentified individuals.
The incident got an immediate reaction from the local community. On Saturday, over 500 people gathered outside the Station Road police station, raising slogans and demanding action against the stone pelters. Initially the police attempted to pacify the crowd and registered an FIR against unknown persons. The police teams, led by SP Rahul Kumar Lodha, proceeded to the Mochipura area to investigate.
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