'Immediately order reconstruction': Ex-CBI interim director to MP govt on demolition of ancient Hanuman temple in judge's residence

M Nageswara Rao, the former interim director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on Sunday night said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that the Madhya Pradesh government should order the reconstruction of the Hanuman Temple at Madhya Pradesh High Court Chief Justice Suresh Kumar Kait's official residence.

He also urged the state government to recover the cost from the culprit concerned. His take came days after an ancient Hanuman temple in the compound of Madhya Pradesh High Court Chief Justice's official residence was allegedly demolished.

The MP High Court Bar Association lodged a complaint with the Chief Justice of India and Supreme Court seeking a probe into the same. Rao further said that the MP High Court Bar Association shall pursue the matter vigorously till its logical end, including the reconstruction of the demolished temple.

"Secondly, it is hoped that the Hon'ble CJI and SC takes the matter seriously and initiates stringent action against the culprit whosoever he may be," the former CBI interim director noted. 

Moreover, he mentioned in his post that the British usurped acres upon acres of temple lands for secular purposes and/or leased/allotted to Christian missionaries. Rao cited the example of the popular Loyola College, which is around 200 acres of land belonging to the Kapaleeshwar temple. 

"As Jabalpur High Court is of British vintage, it is quite possible that the premises of official residence of Chief Justice of MP High Court, Jabalpur may have actually been the land belonging to the ancient Hanuman Temple there." 

He went onto state that a demand should be made to verify the old land records and the excavation of the area by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to find out the truth. 

M Nageswara Rao furthermore highlighted that this is not an isolated incident of the alleged intolerance of Buddhists but "a representative example of historical and well documented Buddhist intolerance against Hindus and Hindu religion as they had demolished, forcefully occupied and converted thousands of Hindu Temples into Buddhist religious places."

He added that Sarnath, Gaya and Angkor Wat are the only three prominent Hindu temples that the Buddhists have allegedly converted. 

"Lastly, but for the Hinduphobic RSS-BJP-Narendra Modi's huge patronage to things Buddhist, the alleged demolition of ancient Hanuman Temple in the compound of official residence at CJ of MP HC at Jabalpur, would never have happened," the former CBI interim director said towards the end of his post.