CHITTOOR: Chittoor police solved an idol vandalisation case within 24 hours and took a mentally unstable woman into custody. Addressing a press conference, SP S Senthil Kumar said a complaint was filed at the Kuppam Urban police station on vandalisation of idols by unidentified miscreants at Subrahmanya Swamy temple in Gonuguru village of Kuppam on Tuesday.
The district police swung into action and formed three special teams to investigate the case. While following the leads given by the temple management, temple priest and a few locals, it is learnt that one Jyothi, a mentally unstable woman, who frequently visited the temple, vandalised the idols on March 31 in an inebriated condition.
“The temple is located in an isolated place and is rarely visited by devotees. Even the priest visits the temple only once a week. The temple management, priest and locals suspected the role of Jyothi in the vandalisation of idols of Lord Subrahmanya and His Consorts Sri Valli and Devasena. She used to frequently visit the temple at odd hours,” the SP said.
When questioned, Jyothi confessed that she vandalised the idols on March 31 and placed them in a ditch 20 metres away from the temple. Later, she went back to the village and shouted in front of villagers that ‘She has killed Murugan’. The villagers did not take her words seriously as she is mentally unstable. The incident came to light when the priest visited the temple on April 6.
Explaining about the steps taken by the police to protect religious places, the SP said they identified 4,530 places of worship and categorised them into A, B and C. He asked TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu not to attribute conspiracy angle to the incident.