Sai Baba idol 'broken' and replaced in South Delhi: Report

New Delhi: Locals in a Shahpur Jat neighbourhood in South Delhi have demolished an idol of Sai Baba in a temple and replaced it with an idol of Lord Ganesha amid curt denials from temple authorities and conflicting testimonies from other locals living in the area, according to a detailed report of the incident, first published by news website Scroll.in.

As per the report, the incident occurred on March 25, and a video of a man trying to uproot the idol of Sai Baba amid shouts from people that the saint was purportedly Muslim, was made public on social media.

While temple authorities have said that the idol was not demolished but simply removed because it was "broken", one priest refused to talk to the news website but told them, "We are in big trouble."

Significantly, the report also found evidence of the man seen breaking the Sai Baba idol with Narsinghanand Saraswati, the chief priest of a Ghaziabad temple and an infamous right-wing Hindu extremist also linked to inciting Hindus during the north-east Delhi riots last year. In one video, Saraswati can be seen praising the man for what he had done.

However, when the Scroll.in spoke to the man seen breaking the idol, he first denied involvement and then contradicted himself.