On Friday (1st December), the Mahakal police station of Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh arrested a 60-year-old man named Latif Khan for urinating on Hindu temples at Ramghat in Ujjain. The accused is a retired sanitation worker of the Ujjain Municipality. He was booked under section 295A of the IPC and presented before a court. Then he was sent to jail. The police have said that he looked mentally unstable during primary interrogations.
A video from Ujjain’s Ramghat area was going viral in which a devotee from Delhi was seen saying that when he was walking with his family on the banks of Ramghat, the accused Latif Khan was urinating on small Hindu temples built on the Ramghat. When the devotee stopped him from doing so, Latif Khan did not agree. Later, he was caught with the help of some activists of Hindu organisations who handed him over to the Mahakal police station.
The Mahakal police station in-charge Ajay Varma said, “We received information about an old man urinating at temples in the Ramghat area. A police team was sent to the spot. The people of the Hindu organisation standing around the old man said that he was urinating on the temples, due to which they were angry. The name of the arrested person is Latif Khan son of Fasal Khan resident of Fazalpura. He is a 60-year-old who used to work as a cleaner in the municipal corporation till some time ago. He retired some time ago.”
Ajay Varma added, “When the police questioned Latif, his mental condition did not appear to be good. In this matter, a case was registered against the accused under section 295 A and he was presented in the court, from where he has been sent to jail.”
In recent years, a concerning trend of attacks on Hindu temples by Islamists dubbed “mentally unstable” in the media has emerged in various parts of India. These incidents have affected regions across the country. Notably, some of these attacks have occurred during festive seasons or close to religious Hindu processions.
Additionally, these transpired without provocation, underscoring the deep-rooted hatred towards Hinduism in the minds of Islamists which is the root cause behind these attacks. It is worth noting that in several of these cases, dedicated attempts were made to excuse their actions by labelling the attackers as mental patients. Now, a similar attack is seen in Ujjain and police are claiming that the accused was mentally unstable.