Mild tension gripped southeast Delhi’s Govindpuri area on Wednesday afternoon after a 43-year-old “mentally-ill” man hurled a bottle filled with petrol inside Madina Masjid located at Block-C, according to police. The locals immediately caught the man and handed him over to police.
According to an eyewitness, no one was injured, only a mat kept inside the mosque got burned.
The incident took place at around 1.30 pm when the afternoon prayer was going on. It was then that a man identified as Rajvansh entered into the mosque and threw a beer bottle filled with petrol. local sources said the accused had attacked the mosque twice in the past.
“We will verify the veracity of the allegations against the accused related to his criminal history, if any. As of now, we have just detained the person and preliminary investigations suggest that he is mentally unsound,” said an official.
Police have collected the CCTV footage from outside the mosque to establish the sequence of events. “We are probing the matter from all possible angles as it involves a religious place and are taking every possible step required,” said a police officer.
Also, the officer said the accused is a resident of Jhuggi Basti area of Transit Camp locality in Govindpuri’s B-block and lives alone in a house.
After the incident, security in the area was beefed up to thwart any untoward incident even as the Delhi Police’s top brass swung immediately into action.
“Prime facie there is no hint of any foul play in the incident,” said the officer, adding that they have also asked specialised doctors of a Government hospital to conduct thorough medical examination of the accused.
Police have also approached his relatives who are, reportedly, in Bihar, to get to the depth of the story.