The Chariot of the famous Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple in Antarvedi of East Godavari district was gutted in a fire early Sunday morning. The chariot was used for special occasions and rituals at the temple.
The chariot kept under a shed went up in flames and before anyone could reach there, it was gutted completely. The opposition expressed doubts of sabotage as the CCTV cameras were out of operations from the last six months.
State endowments minister Vellampalli Srinivas, while terming the incident to be an unfortunate one, ordered a probe into the incident and has appointed endowments department additional commissioner Ramachandra Mohan as the inquiry officer.
“Enquiry will be done by endowments, police and the fire services personnel and those responsible for the mishap will be punished. We are probing whether it is negligence or sabotage that led to the fire. I have asked officials to reconstruct the chariot, to restore its glory and to address the damage done to the Hindu sentiments,” the minister said.
BJP State President Veerraju demanded an inquiry by a sitting high court judge. Condemning the act, Veerraju said, “There is a conspiracy behind this fire. The government should act tough on this incident. The culprits behind it should be brought to the book. The CM should act quickly as the Hindu sentiments are hurt with this.”
Some Hindu activists protested against the fire by saying after Jagan Mohan Reddy assumed office as the CM, these kinds of incidents have been on rise. They cry some foul play in this entire incident.
The ruling YSRCP MP also expressed doubts over it. He said, “It was unfortunate that their chariot was on fire. Antarvedi chariot festival was very important and the burning of the chariot was suspected to be a conspiracy.”