Pictured: A scene from the CCTV footage where the accused is seen touching the trident
An incident of a man, apparently in an inebriated state, touching and inadvertently destroying the trishul (trident) of a deity at a temple in Andhra Pradesh has come to light. The incident took place in Andhra Pradesh’s Kakinada district on January 9. The entire episode was recorded on the CCTV camera installed near the temple as part of the state government’s recent initiative against the wide-ranging spate of attacks on Hindu temples.
On Monday, the East Godavari district police arrested the man in the footage for damaging the tridents at the Sri Nookalamma Temple in Kakinada’s Kondayyapalem. The accused, identified as Vanumu Lakshmana Rao (39), is a resident of Kondayyapalem in Kakinada. He is a butcher and a daily-wage labourer by profession.
The police shared footage of Rao in an inebriated state dancing and talking to the goddess’ idols and touching the trident. In another footage captured by a CCTV camera from the left side, Rao raised his hand and pushed the idol’s trident, resulting in damage to the trident’s top part. According to the police, he has confessed to having committed the offence after a thorough interrogation.
The police said that on the night of the incident Rao borrowed his friend’s bicycle and consumed alcohol. He then went to the temple, broke the tridents and went away. In the CCTV footage released by the police, the bicycle can be seen lying on the ground, while Rao is seen dancing, talking and breaking the tridents.
“About 6 am on January 10, the priest of the temple noticed that the two tridents outside the temple were partly broken,” said a police official. The cement idols standing on either side of the Nookalamma temple’s entry door used to hold two tridents. Following a complaint by Karri Gangaraju, the temple’s committee president on January 10, the police arrested Rao on Monday. He was charged under sections 447 (criminal trespass), 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class) and 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).