The head priest of the Chilkur Balaji temple near Hyderabad, CS Rangarajan, was allegedly attacked by a group of men and women, led by a man named Veera Raghava Reddy who claims to be the re-incarnation of Lord Shiva. The priest told the police that Reddy attacked him after he refused to recruit people for his “sainyam”, a private army, and support his causes monetarily.
The incident happened on Friday, February 7 at the priest’s quarters behind the Chilkur Balaji temple, which is located on the outskirts of Hyderabad. Moinabad police arrested Veera Raghava Reddy on February 9.
Reddy also runs a YouTube channel named ‘Rama Rajyam’, where he mentions his goal as, “Establishing a special military to seize temples, temple lands, and cow grazing pastures, to protect against evil along with cow protection.”
According to the complaint filed with the Moinabad police, Rangarajan said that around 20 men and women forcefully entered his quarters on the morning of February 7. They started arguing with him and physically assaulted him, the complaint said.
Reddy, who led the group, claimed to be the incarnation of “Mukkanti (Lord Shiva)” and started to hit the priest in his face, with three or four of his followers joining him, the complaint said, adding that the attackers filmed the incident on their phones.
“They threatened him with dire consequences if he did not listen to them, [saying] they would pick him up and the result would be dangerous,” the complaint said.
The priest also mentioned in his complaint that there were many videos on social media in which Reddy was “claiming that he can go to any extent, and even take people’s lives if required.”
“If such persons are allowed to create a parallel army like Naxals in the name of Rama Sena, it will be dangerous,” the priest said in his complaint.
Temples Protection Movement convenor MV Soundararajan, who is Rangarajan’s father, said in a press release that a few individuals who claimed to be descendants of the Ikshwaku clan wanted to form Rama Rajya and claimed that they created private armies to punish people who did not accept their mission or agenda. Soundararajan said that these people did not understand the concept of constitutional Rama Rajya and that his son refused to associate with them.
“They seriously manhandled my son Shri Rangarajan…They landed blows on him," Soundararajan said in his statement.
Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader KT Rama Rao condemned the attack and visited the priest at his residence on February 10. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar offered support to the priest.
Rangarajan is a vocal Hindu religious leader. The Chilkur temple itself is famously known as the ‘Visa God’ temple, due to a popular belief in the Telugu states that praying at the temple helps secure a United States visa.
The police have registered a case against Veera Raghava Reddy and others under Sections 189(2) (unlawful assembly), 333 (house-trespass after preparation for assault), 308(5) (extortion), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), and 351(3) (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).