Key Points:
- “Sai Baba was a pindari lootera (lawless raider). His name was Chand Khan. He was a jihadi..” Saraswati told Scroll.in.
- Panwar can be seen with Hindutva priest Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati who is congratulating and blessing Panwar for throwing away the Sai Baba idol.
- A middle-aged man overseeing the demolition in the video was recognized as ‘Padam Panwar’, Scroll.in reported.
A video surfaced on the internet in which a man was seen demolishing an Idol of the Indian Spiritual Master ‘SAI BABA’. There was not just one, but a series of videos in which a middle-aged man dressed in a pale-blue shirt could be seen overseeing the demolition. The videos were recorded in a temple in South Delhi.
According to Scroll.in, the man that was overseeing the ‘demolition’ at the Shahpur Jat temple in South Delhi is ‘Padam Panwar’.
The video starts with Panwar instructing the worker to uproot the idol with a crowbar, then he takes a hammer to it five times. “He is no god, he died in 1918,” Panwar declares, looking into the camera. “He was Muslim.”
“Mullah hai,” says another voice in the background, using a derogatory term for Muslims.
Panwar can be seen in another video with Hindutva priest Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati. Yati Saraswati is seen congratulating and blessing Panwar for doing what he did – throwing away the Sai Baba idol.
On the contrary, The Indian Express reported Panwar who claimed, “The idol was taken down because it was old. It is a tradition in the Hindu religion to take down idols when they become old. The temple is being reconstructed. Once the new half of the temple is ready, we will have a meeting and take a call on whether a new Sai Baba idol will be set up or not.”
Panwar also said that he was not aware of Saraswati and was shocked to know that Muslims weren’t allowed in the temple. Panwar said Saraswati was just trying to ‘highlight himself’ and stopped recording when he tried to speak, Scroll.in reported. In the video, Saraswati can be heard saying, “If I had my way, jihadis like Sai won’t be able to enter temples.”
Saraswati justified his move and said, “Sai Baba was a pindari lootera (lawless raider). His name was Chand Khan. He was a jihadi. It is the madness of our Hindus that he is now in our temples.”
After the incident, the devotees of Sai Baba filed a police complaint against the removal of his idol.
DCP South, Atul Kumar Thakur, said, “A few Sai Baba devotees from across the city filed a complaint stating that their sentiments have been hurt by the removal. We are looking into the matter.”
