Amidst the ongoing controversy over a Christ statue at Kapalabetta in Ramanagara district, another statue on Tuesday was removed from Mahimabetta in Doddasagrahalli village of rural Bengaluru.
The statue, eight feet tall, was removed by local authorities under police protection to ensure that no untoward incidents take place. It was removed after authorities found there was no permission granted for the structure and the land was unsuitable to withstand the structure.
The action comes after a peace meeting that took place in the village last Thursday where authorities told villagers that the statue would be removed. Despite the villagers' requests to have the removal delayed until Good Friday, the authorities granted time only till Monday for the villagers to either have the structure removed by themselves or allow authorities to do so.
A villager told News18 that four acres of the 24-acre government land was sanctioned for a cemetery and the village had all necessary permissions required for the statue and a cross nearby.
"We have all necessary permission for the statue and the cross around it also. We do not know what exactly is illegal but we haven't opposed the authorities after they said it (the statue) was not legal. We have cooperated with them. The statue is now in the village's church," he said.
The tehsildar of the village, Ajith Rai, said the statue blocked a part of the road near the church below the hill.
"When the villagers wanted to widen the road, the statue was removed and moved atop the hill is what we know. We found that the land is not suitable for even a cemetery as approved. Also, since it's a public cemetery, it cannot have any one particular religious symbol," he said.
"We received memorandum from certain pro-Hindu groups to look into the matter. However, we did not receive any complaint from the villagers. We discussed the issue with the villagers and they agreed upon having the statue removed. In spite of the villagers' cooperation, we took police along during the removal of the statue to ensure nothing went wrong," he added.
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