The atrocities against Hindu temples have risen enormously after the YSRCP government was formed in 2019. There have been several outbursts from the Hindu community already, complaining that the AP government is not taking serious action against the perpetrators of these atrocities.
In the midst of this, the Nandi idol belonging to Vandana Malleswara Swamy temple, located in the Koundyana forest area near the Scheduled Tribes (ST) colony in Devalampeta locality of Jagamarla village in Palamaneru mandalam was stolen. The Andhra Pradesh police investigated the issue, after the temple’s priest, Narasimhulu, lodged a complaint.
The police arrested M. Venkata Chalapathi (43), K. Srinivasulu (34), K. Hari (34), B. Sridhar (27), G. Venkatesh (24), P. Dasaradaiah (40), G. Narasimhulu (60), K. Ranga Babu (40), D. Prakash (34) and B. Munendra (29). Upon probing them, it came to light that the idol was stolen, believing that there would be diamonds inside the idol.
After the first attempt of stealing the idol didn’t go as planned, the idol was stolen in the second attempt. The idol was buried and then removed from where it was buried on April 2nd. Gopi, who broke the idol into pieces, died 3 days ago in a road accident, while the remaining have been arrested. To avoid suspicion, most of the pieces of the idol were thrown into the Swarnamukhi river. The police confiscated whatever pieces they could find.
On the other hand, 163 temple offenses were reported in 2015, 139 in 2017, and 123 in 2018, during the TDP’s government. After the YSRCP came to power in 2019, 177 offenses were reported. In 2020, there has been an uproar in the atrocities against temples, following the chariot burning at the Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple in Antarvedi, apart from which there were 143 alleged temple offenses.