Police probing the Ramateertham idol desecration case have some important leads and the act of the miscreants was leading to conspiracy angle, said Director General of Police (DGP) D. Gautam Sawang.
“We observed something like a pattern (similarity with other incidents) occurred in the last few days with Ramateertham vandalizing case. Police, in association with the Crime Investigation Department (CID) are investigating the case in other angles,” Mr. Sawang said.
Speaking to The Hindu on Wednesday, the DGP said police are questioning a few suspects in the case. Actually, the miscreants did not target the main Ramateertham temple which have about 16 CCTVs. The accused damaged the Lord Sri Rama idol in the small temple located on the hill top, which do not have proper surveillance.
“The temple management procured 16 more CCTVs and electrical equipment for the small temple. The miscreants resorted to the act when the surveillance cameras are about to fix on the hill, which was raising many doubts,” the State Police Chief said.
Police are investigating whether the accused have links to other incidents, whether they spoke with the accused who resorted to similar incidents, role of locals, do they have any political background and whether an organized gang was operating in the State to create law and order problem in the State, he said.
Police have done security audit for 50,000 shrines in the last few months and efforts are being made to provide CCTVs to all the temples in the State. Instructions have been given to review security at all the places of worship from time to time, Mr. Sawang said.
Asked whether there was any political conspiracy and any party was behind the attacks on shrines in the State, the DGP said the police are verifying the call data of the suspects picked up in the cases.
“Activists of various organizations and political parties can do protests in a peaceful manner without causing any inconvenience to the public. Police will not keep quiet, if any person tries to create law and order problem and disturb peace at shrines. Police will not allow any rallies and processions at the places of worship as there are chances of violence,” the DGP said.
