Man held for removing Sai Baba's idol from temple in South Delhi
New Delhi, Apr 6: A 50-year-old temple committee member was arrested for allegedly making "derogatory" remarks and removing a Sai Baba idol from the premises of a temple in South Delhi's Shahpur Jat area, police said on Tuesday.
A group of devotees had filed a complaint alleging that the idol was demolished, they said.
The accused, Padam Panwar, a resident of Shahpur Jat, was arrested on Monday when the devotees approached the police after a video of the purported removal of the idol surfaced on social media, they said.
In the video, a man supervising the removal of the idol could be seen arguing about what religion Sai Baba represented.
In a complaint filed at Hauz Khas police station on April 3, the devotees alleged that the idol of Sai Baba was demolished and said their religious sentiments were hurt by the "derogatory" statements made against him.
A police official said that based on a complaint, an FIR was filed under the charges of deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulating its religion or religious beliefs and of promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, etc and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony.
An investigation was initiated in the matter, the officer said.
Investigation revealed that Panwar was seen in the video, supervising the removal of the idol and making "derogatory" remarks, arguing what religion Sai Baba represented, the official added.
Locals said the idol was replaced with an idol of Lord Ganesha.
However, earlier, the temple committee had told the police that the Sai Baba idol was removed on March 25 by them and local residents as it was about 10 years old.
"This idol was set up by temple committee member Padam Panwar. Now Padam Panwar along with other committee members such as Bharat Panwar, Jiya Panwar, Satyanarayan, Naresh, Mohan Panwar and Pandit ji decided to set up a new idol with the consent of local residents," the temple authorities had told the police earlier.
The police, however, said further investigation is underway in the matter.
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Kejriwal says he, AAP leaders will go to BJP office on Sunday; dares PM to get them arrested
New Delhi (PTI): Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday that he and other AAP leaders would go to the BJP headquarters on March 19 "so that the prime minister can send anyone he wants to jail".
The BJP is saying they will send AAP MP Raghav Chadha and Delhi ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj to jail too, he claimed at a press briefing hours after his aide Bibhav Kumar was arrested in connection with the alleged assault on his party's parliamentarian Swati Maliwal.
Kejriwal, who is also the AAP national convener, however, asserted that his party could not be crushed by sending its leaders to jail.
Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "playing the game" of sending AAP leaders such as Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, and Sanjay Singh to jail, he said, "I along with my MLAs and MPs would go to the BJP office at noon tomorrow so that the prime minister can send anyone he wants to jail."
"The AAP is an idea. For as many AAP leaders you jail, the country would produce leaders a hundred times more," Kejriwal said.
He claimed that the AAP's "fault" was that its government in Delhi built good schools, set up Mohalla Clinics, provided free treatment and ensured free round-the-clock power supply in the city which the BJP could not do.
Kejriwal, who was arrested in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam, has been granted interim bail till June 1 by the Supreme Court to campaign in the Lok Sabha polls. He will have to surrender and go back to jail on June 2, a day after the last phase of polling in the general elections.
