Police probe demolition of Sai Baba idol in Shahpur Jat

The alleged perpetrator can be heard saying that Sai Baba was a Muslim, as he takes hammer swings at the idol in the viral video that surfaced online last week.

Delhi Police on Sunday said they had launched a probe in the video in which a man is spotted hammering and demolishing the statue of Sai Baba — a spiritual leader revered by the Hindus — inside a temple in south Delhi’s Shahpur Jat.

According to Atul Kumar Thakur, deputy commissioner of police (south), the police began their enquiry into the incident after receiving a complaint from a bunch of local devotees. (Arvind Yadav/HT PHOTO)

The alleged perpetrator can be heard saying that Sai Baba was a Muslim, as he takes hammer swings at the idol in the viral video that surfaced online last week.

According to Atul Kumar Thakur, deputy commissioner of police (south), the police began their enquiry into the incident after receiving a complaint from a bunch of local devotees. “We are looking into the incident. We are yet to register a case,” said Thakur.

While the police said that the people they interrogated so far have claimed that the idol was already “khandit” or broken and was to be replaced, the a middle-aged man dressed in a pale-blue shirt captured on the video, identified as Padam Panwar, can be heard saying that he decided to get the idol removed as Sai Baba was a Muslim.

“I personally got the statue installed in 2009. But now that I got to know that Sai Baba was a Muslim, I got the statue removed. Sai Baba was no God, he was a common man,” Panwar, 55, is captured saying on the video,

Panwar said he lives in Shahpur Jat itself and has a real estate business.

In the video doing rounds on social media, Panwar first instructs a worker to uproot the idol with a crowbar. He then wields a hammer himself and hits the statue multiple time, before talking to the camera and stating that Sai Baba was no god, but a Muslim.

A second video later emerged in which Panwar is purportedly seen in the company of Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati — a priest of Dasna Devi temple in Ghaziabad — who was booked by the Delhi Police on Saturday for allegedly making inflammatory comments against the Prophet at a press conference.

Saraswati couldn’t be reached for a comment on the issue, with Delhi police also stating that they were yet to ascertain if Panwar was the man seen in the other undated video with Saraswati. Contacted, Panwar, however, said it was indeed him in the video.

“This temple was constructed by my ancestors even before Sai Baba was born. But I have got to know now that he was a Muslim. He cannot share the same space that is occupied by Hindu gods,” said Panwar.

Panwar claimed that he was questioned by the police on Sunday.