Hindu temple in Minnesota vandalised

A multi-million dollar temple under construction in mid-west Minnesota was vandalised on April 5 damaging large number of Hindu deities, which were specially imported from India.

Built by the Hindu Society of Minnesota at Mapple Grove near Minneapolis at a cost of $9 million, the consecration ceremony of the temple was scheduled for June. ‘‘This is a crime against a minority institution, and there is no way the perpetrators did not know that,’’ Indian American leader and Minnesota State Senator Satveer Chaudhary said. Temple officials said a new date for consecration ceremony would be announced later.