Massive protest against ‘idol desecration’ in Maharashtra’s Mulshi; markets closed, two-wheeler rally taken out

Residents of the Paud village in Mulshi found the idol of Goddess Annapurna at a temple desecrated and identified a 19-year-old suspect through CCTV footage.

Hundreds take out to protest against the alleged desecration of an idol of Goddess Annapurna at a temple in the Paud village. (Express photo)

A bandh was observed Monday in the Mulshi taluka in the Pune district of Maharashtra to protest against the alleged desecration of an idol of Goddess Annapurna at a temple in the Paud village. Hundreds of activists of various right-wing organisations and residents took out a massive two-wheeler rally in Mulshi to condemn the alleged idol desecration. The Sakal Hindu Samaj had called for the bandh.

Markets in the region were kept closed. A two-wheeler rally was taken out, and BJP minister and MLA Chandrakant Patil accompanied the protestors when they handed over a letter carrying their demands to the tehsildar of Mulshi taluka. Patil said that the accused will not be spared in this case. Inspector Santosh Girigosavi of the Paud police station said no untoward incident was reported during the bandh.

On May 2, villagers found that Goddess Annapurna’s idol at the Nageshwar temple in Paud was desecrated. They checked the video captured by a CCTV camera installed at the temple. The CCTV footage allegedly revealed that a youth desecrated the idol around 3 pm.

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The police said the villagers questioned the youth, Chand Shaikh, 19, a resident of Paud. But his father Naushad, 44, allegedly threatened them. Villagers then thrashed Chand and brought him and his father to the Paud police station, where a First Information Report (FIR) was lodged against them around 3 am on May 3.

The police arrested the duo under sections 196, 296 (a), 298, 299, 302, 351 (2), 352, and 3 (5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Village residents took out a protest march on May 3 to condemn the incident.

Paud comes under the Baramati Loksabha constituency. On May 4, Nationalist Congress Party (SP)’s Baramati MP Supriya Sule condemned the incident on her X handle. Sule demanded stern action against the youth who allegedly desecrated the idol.

BJP MLC Chitra Wagh responded to Sule Monday, blaming her for not naming the accused due to “appeasement politics”. On her X handle, Wagh compared the accused in this case to the terrorists who shot down 26 people in the Pahalgam terror attack.

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