PONDA: Khandola villagers on Wednesday sternly confronted the Ponda police for slapping ‘weak’ charges against the Gawde brothers, arrested yesterday for allegedly removing the idol from the Mallikarjun temple and attacking four locals with a sword and stones.
Later, claiming that weak charges enabled the accused to obtain easy bail, the villagers staged a sit-in protest in front of the police station demanding that the accused brothers be slapped with serious offences of hurting religious sentiments and attempt to murder.
Gurudas Gawde and his brother Gokuldas reportedly had a dispute with some villagers over the right to perform rituals during the Dussehera and Tarang festivals. Following the dispute, the duo reportedly obstructed the villagers from performing rituals and later removed the idol from the inner sanctorum.
The duo also reportedly attacked four villagers, who went to perform religious rituals at the temple, with stones and a sword thereby injuring them.
The duo was released on conditional bail by a Ponda court, on Wednesday.
Angered at the quick release of the accused duo on bail, Khandola villagers went to the Ponda police station and sternly confronted by police for not registering a case of attempt to murder against the accused duo – a failure, the villagers believe, led to the early release of the accused.
Later, the villagers staged a sit-in protest in front of the police station demanding that senior police officials attend to their grievances.
Shantadurga Devastan President Sidhesh Sukhtankar said, “Yesterday, the police assured us that they would take stringent action against the accused, but failed to abide by their assurance. Therefore, the villagers want to meet the DySP or SP to press for stronger charges against the duo.”
The villagers said that the attack by the accused do was deadly and they hurt their religious feeling by removing the idol from the temple.
Sukhtankar said that on August 15 this year, a Shivling belonging to the devastan was stolen; following which, a theft complaint was lodged against unknown persons. Suggesting that the Gawde brothers are the likely suspects in the theft case, he said the police should their residence to search for the Shivling.
