Thursday, 18 January 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The man who had allegedly damaged an idol at the 70-year-old Shiv Durga temple in Rishikesh on January 10 was reunited with his family after being detained for questioning by the Dehradun police. The Dehradun senior superintendent of police Ajai Singh said that the man was mentally unstable and had been missing from his home in Gujarat for the past seven years. He said that the manager of the temple had registered a complaint at Rishikesh police station on January 11 stating that an unknown man broke an idol in the temple on January 10 in the evening and ran away. Due to the case being related to religious beliefs, the SSP directed the in-charge of Rishikesh police station to form four teams to investigate the matter.
The police activated the informer system and started analysing CCTV footage collected from cameras installed in the area near the temple. Singh said that the police questioned several suspicious persons by conducting checking campaigns at different places in the Rishikesh area. During the checking, the police team found one person matching the suspect’s appearance obtained from the CCTV footage. The police detained the man to conduct the interrogation during which he was found to be mentally unstable. He said that it took a considerable amount of time for the police to identify the person. He was identified as Nayan Kumar, a resident of Gujarat’s Bhavnagar.
On contacting Gujarat police, they informed that Kumar had been missing from his house for the past seven years. His family had also registered a missing person complaint at Bhavnagar police station. Singh said that the family members were informed after which the father and others arrived in Rishikesh on Wednesday. They informed the police that Kumar was mentally disturbed and was undergoing treatment before he went missing. The SSP said that after meeting the accused and his family, the complainant decided not to pursue any legal action against him. The family also expressed gratitude to the police for reuniting their son with them after seven years, the SSP added.
