Leaders across political parties have condemned the desecration of an idol of Goddess Annapurna at Nageshwar Temple in Pune district's Paud village and demanded stern action against the accused.
Shiv Sena MLA Nilesh Rane took to X (formerly Twitter) and stated that the accused had "no right to live." He wrote, "The situation in Paud village is so painful that it is hard to believe that people like this even exist in the world we live in. What good is it to society if the police just make arrests? They should make an example of him. He doesn't have the right to live for even a minute."
NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule urged the government to act decisively. "A young man has committed an inappropriate act at the Annapurna Devi temple in Paud village. This incident is extremely disgusting and infuriating. No sensitive person can tolerate such behaviour," she wrote in the post. "I urge the government to take the strictest possible action against him immediately. We firmly believe that no one who disrupts social harmony should be spared or forgiven," she added.
Shiv Sena MP Shrirang Barne labelled the desecration a deliberate act aimed at hurting Hindu sentiments. "We will not tolerate the insult of our religion," Barne said. "This is not just the act of an unstable individual but a conscious attempt to provoke. A bandh has been called in Mulshi taluka, and it has received support from the Hindu community. We firmly demand the harshest punishment for the guilty," the Maval MP added.
BJP MLA Nitesh Rane also reacted strongly to the incident. Sharing the CCTV clip of the deplorable incident on X, he wrote, "You will get a befitting reply!"
According to the police, a 16-year-old Muslim youth was caught on Friday on surveillance footage entering the temple and making obscene, sexually explicit gestures toward the idol of Goddess Annapurna.
Unaware that his actions were being recorded, the minor carried on with the disgusting act, leading to shock and fury among temple-goers and residents of the village.
A local devotee who had gone to offer prayers noticed that the idol wasn't in its original place and immediately informed others. They reviewed the CCTV footage, which exposed the desecration in its entirety. The community was stunned by the visuals, which quickly went viral.
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Senior Inspector Santosh Girigosavi of the Paud Police Station stated that when locals approached the accused's family, they were met with indifference. The locals said that the father, Naushad Shaikh (44), not only failed to express any remorse but also allegedly issued threats to the villagers who confronted him over the incident.
In response, villagers filed a police complaint, prompting the authorities to register a case against both the father and the minor son. The FIR has been lodged under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including Sections 196, 298, 299, 302, 351(2), and 3(5).
The accused father, a bakery worker by profession, hails from Bihar, though the minor son was born in Paud and had studied locally up to Class 4, police said. The father has been arrested, while the minor who committed the act has been detained.
In response to the incident, locals also observed a "bandh" in Mulshi taluka on Monday. A graphic of the announcement had been circulated on social media on Saturday. It read, "We condemn the desecration of the idol of Goddess Annapurna at Nageshwar Temple in Paud village. In response, the Sakal Hindu Samaj in Mulshi will observe a shutdown on Monday."
Additionally, the Sakal Hindu Samaj in Mulshi took out a massive protest march. The videos of the march have gone viral on social media.
