A 16-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) will probe the desecration of temple idols in Andhra Pradesh. The Andhra Pradesh government issued an order to this effect on Friday even as opposition parties called for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into several instances of attacks on idols at temples in the state. The 16-member team will be headed by Additional Director, Anti-Corruption Bureau GVG Ashok Kumar.
Krishna District Superintendent of Police M Ravindranath Babu and two Additional SPs will also be part of the team investigating the cases related to vandalising of temples and desecration of idols. Two Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSPs), two Assistant Commissioners of Police (ACPs), four Circle Inspectors and an equal number of Sub Inspectors of different wings across the state have also been roped into the 16-member team.
The state has also called in support from the State Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Crime Investigation Department and other wings to assist the SIT which will report directly to Director General of Police D Gautam Sawang and the Additional DGP (Law and Order) Ravi Shankar Ayyanar. The police have so far booked 25 cases of attacks on temples in West Godavari, Krishna, Vizianagaram, East Godavari, Prakasam and other districts in the State, said an unnamed SIT officer to The Hindu.
Earlier on Friday, the Andhra Pradesh police arrested six journalists in Prakasam district for falsely propagating news of corrosion damage to a temple arch as an alleged attack. They were locked up for a day and later released on bail.
The state has been on high alert since a series of attacks on temples, as the police have stepped up vigil across temples. Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has called for an investigation by the CBI into the attacks.