The followers of Sai Baba filed a complaint against demolition of his idol at a temple in Shahpur Jat area in New Delhi.
A video clip has gone viral on social media, in which some Hindutva fanatics can be seen carrying out the demolition. While demolising his idol, they were saying that Sai Baba was a ”Muslims” and were using pejorative terms such as ”jihadi”, ”mullah” for him.
The man, who is seen in the viral video supervising the demolition, has been seen with the hate preacher Yati Narsinganand Saraswati, who in recent days has gained notoriety after abusing Islam and Muslim. The idol breaker has been identified as Padam Panwar, who is a real estate businessman. According to Scroll.in, Narsinganand, who supported his follower Shirangi Yadav for thrashing a Muslim boy Asif at Dasna Temple recently, has also congratulated Panwar for breaking the idol.
“If I had my way, jihadis like Sai won’t be able to enter temples,” he says.
While a member of the temple committee claimed the idol had been removed on March 25 because it was “khandit” or broken, many residents of the neighbourhood, who are devotees of Sai Baba, rejected this explanation and expressed shock and grief at the demolition.
The complaint was filed on 31 March at the Hauz Khas police station demanding action against the culprits and the restoration of the idol.
“A few people came in and broke the idol of Shri Sai Baba while saying the idol should be removed as he is not a Hindu god but a Muslim. We request you to kindly take action against the culprits who conducted this heinous crime as this hurts the sentiments of people who believe in Sai Baba. We request you to ensure the restoration of Baba’s idol in the same temple premises as soon as possible,” read the complaint.