Hyderabad: Salman Salim Thakur, the accused who has been arrested for damaging the idol in the Sri Muthyalamma Temple located at Kummarguda under the Market police station limits in Secunderabad, is also involved in other similar cases in Maharashtra.
One of them includes a case wherein he has been booked for similarly insulting another deity.
The Hyderabad police also said that Salman is ‘self-radicalised’ and developed hatred towards the practices of other religions. According to a press release from the police, Salman began watching videos of controversial Islamic preachers on Facebook and YouTube which led him to develop animosity against other religions.
On October 14, at about 4:30 am, Salman entered the sanctum-sanctorum of the Sri Muthyalamma Temple located at Kummarguda in Secunderabad and desecrated the main idol of the temple. Locals soon reached the spot and caught hold of him. Angered by the provocative act, some of the locals thrashed him.
Upon questioning him about the reason for the trespass and damage, he refused to provide details and the motive behind his act. “Acting swiftly on the information, the local police reached the spot and shifted the accused to a hospital and took stock of the situation,” said the release.
An FIR was registered and the police found that Salman, who lives near Mumbai, came to Hyderabad early in the month of October 2024 to attend a month-long personality development workshop.
The workshop was organized by the English House Academy under the correspondence of Munawar Zama, Md Kafeel Ahmed and others at Hotel Metropolis, Regimental Bazar, Secunderabad. “It is found that the hotel premises were rented illegally for running the academic course which has no formal permission. Necessary legal action is being taken up against the management for the same,” added the Hyderabad police.
Investigations found that Salman in an earlier case from 2022 entered a Ganesh Pandal with his footwear and argued with local people, mocking the practice of idolatry. In another case from Mumbai, he trespassed into a temple and damaged the idol of Lord Shanker by his foot.
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