New Delhi: BJP MP Arjun Singh, who is also the vice-president of the party’s West Bengal unit, shared a tweet Tuesday, claiming that ‘a particular religious group’ had destroyed a temple of Goddess Kali in the Murshidabad area of West Bengal, and had also burned the idol in the temple.
He also called out the “jihadi nature” of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s politics in the tweet, which has garnered more than 900 likes and has been retweeted more than 600 times.
The jihadi nature of Didi's politics is now hell bent on destroying Hindu religion and culture.
See how one religious group has attacked and destroyed a temple and burned the idol of Maa Kali in Murshidabad area of West Bengal.
Shameful. pic.twitter.com/lTnyiV9ctV
— Arjun Singh (@ArjunsinghWB) September 1, 2020
Several other Twitter accounts shared images of the burnt idol as well.
Bangladeshi author and ‘Hindu activist’ Raju Das also claimed that Alampur, the village where the temple was allegedly situated, was dominated by Muslims.
The miscreants set fire to an Kali idol at an Kali temple in Alampur vill of Naoda PS in Murshidabad late last night.Earlier,gold ornaments of idol were stolen from d same temple.
Alampur is a Mslm majority area. At different times Hnds face obstacles in practicing their religion pic.twitter.com/UbgMtPBkO0
— Raju Das 🇧🇩 (@RajuDas77136393) September 1, 2020
A social media member of the BJP in West Bengal, Akshay Singh, meanwhile, claimed that some ‘unknown jihadis’ had burned the idol.
https://twitter.com/iakshaysinghel/status/1300851053030596608?s=20
A Twitter handle named ‘BefittingFacts, with over 23,000 followers, also tweeted the images, which were liked by more than 4,000 people and shared over 3,500 times.
Some 'unknown' person burnt the idol Kali Maa in Murshidabad.
Before After pic.twitter.com/oaJyaizTj6
— Shash (@BefittingFacts) September 1, 2020
Fact check
Singh’s comment that the temple idol was burned by a ‘religious group’ was refuted by the temple authorities in Murshidabad.
According to Shukdev Bajpayee, temple secretary at the Alampur Kali Maa Nimtala Kali Mandir, there was no communal angle to the incident and the idol had caught fire in an accident.
“The Kali maa’s idol fell into/caught fire. The Hindus and Muslims of the area are peacefully co-existing and have amiable relations. The locks haven’t been broken and this can be some sort of accident. But some people are trying to give this a communal colour by spreading targeted hate speech”, said Bajpayee in a statement.
The Murshidabad Police also replied to Singh’s tweet and stated that it was a fire accident, and requested him to not share such tweets without personally verifying the facts.
As stated by mandir committee it was a fire accident. Temple authorities are taking necessary action. Local police and administration coordinating.
Do not share to anyone without verifying personally.
You may contact mandir committee for further details. pic.twitter.com/YTZJFwjWiE
— Murshidabad Police (@MurshidabadPol1) September 1, 2020
The facts of the case were also verified by SM Hoaxslayer with the Superintendent of Murshidabad Police Sabari Raj Kumar.
Kumar said that the temple authorities have stated that the incident was an accident, and the police was investigating the issue in coordination with the authorities.
In collaboration with SM Hoaxslayer
Also read: Tarek Fatah gets it wrong again. Video of Muslims shouting ‘Islam Zindabad’ not from Kolkata
It was no accident, idol was set on fire by Jihadis.
Mamta begum of course won’t admit and will protect the terrorists.