Thursday
26th Dec 2024
Dhivehi Edition
Indians conducting a ritual in a Maldivian island.
Court orders Indian nationals charged with idol worship in F. Bilehdhoo to be jailed for 10 days.
Maldives Police Service’s media official said that individuals from India aged 27, 37 and 39, had been arrested from Bilehdhoo under a court order. The court ordered to detain them for a period of 10 days for investigation.
Photos of some foreigners carrying a Hindu idol on banana leaves in the middle of an act of worship went viral on September 2nd. The photos showed them walking around the island with the idol in hand and it also showed matchsticks next to the idol.
It was later identified that these were Indian nationals residing in F. Bilehdhoo for an ongoing water and sewerage project.
A team of officers were sent to the island by police to make the arrest.
The men claimed that they had made the idol, from scratch, with clay and painted it themselves. They also stated that they had released the idol into the sea.
Condemning the act, Bilehdhoo Council said that acts of idol worship will never be accepted within the community. The council also said that the people who partook in this disgusting act must be punished harshly.
Bilehdhoo Council urged the police to take extensive measures to bring the perpetrators to justice.