A 'devotee' hurled a petrol bomb at a temple in Chennai as he felt “frustrated” over the deity's inability to answer his prayers.
Police arrested 39-year-old J. Murali Krishnan who hurled the bomb at Sri Veerabadraswami temple in Chennai in an inebriated condition. The police said no one was injured and nothing was damaged in the incident.
According to the police, Krishnan, who reportedly runs a dry fruits business, was immediately overpowered and taken into custody.
Krishnan said he committed the crime as he was upset with the deity for not answering his prayers.
A priest at the temple said Krishnan entered the temple with something that looked like a bottle, lit it and threw at the deity. "We were not near the deity, so none of us got injured. The flowers offered to God were burnt. Four of us were present there," Indian Express quoted the priest as saying.
A case has been registered under the Explosive Substances Act and further investigation is on.
Tamil Nadu BJP chief K. Annamalai claimed that the DMK government is responsible for the incident. Taking to X, he wrote in Tamil: "A petrol bomb was thrown at the Bharatiya Janata Party office in Chennai, a petrol bomb was thrown at the Governor's House, and a petrol bomb was thrown inside the temple today.
A petrol bomb has been thrown on the statue of Swami inside the sanctum sanctorum of Sri Veerabhadra Swamy Temple, Barimuna Govindappa Nayakkan Street, Chennai.
Law and order in Tamil Nadu has gone to the bottom.
The result of DMK's failure to control the separatist organizations that talk about pseudo-secularism and semi-atheism has resulted in petrol bombs being thrown inside temples today.
The Kaiyalaka DMK government is fully responsible for this, as it tried to disguise the terror attack as a cylinder blast."
