Toronto, October 14: At the beginning of October, three Hindu temples were vandalized in Ontario province of Canada and the suspects involved in this vandalism have absconded. Canadian police are searching for him. In a statement, Durham Police said the thefts all occurred within a few hours of each other in the cities of Pickering and Ajax on the morning of October 8.
Describing a suspect in surveillance footage, police said the suspect would be around five feet nine inches tall and weigh approximately 200 pounds.
Giving information about the attire of the accused, it was told that the accused is seen wearing green ‘camo’ cargo pants, a black jacket with a hood, green running shoes, and a blue surgical mask.
Police further reported that officers responded to a report of vandalism at a religious temple at approximately 12:45 a.m. on October 8 in the area of Bailey Street and Crosnow Boulevard in Pickering. Police say that the accused entered a religious temple by vandalizing it, which was reported.
He further said that during security surveillance, it was seen that a person entered the temple and took out a large amount of cash from the donation boxes. Before the police could reach there and catch him, he fled from that area.
Police responded to reports of vandalism at another temple in Pickering shortly thereafter in the area of Brock Road and Durson Street at about 1:30 p.m. The accused entered that temple by vandalizing it and this incident was also reported. Responding to this a resident of the temple said that an attempt was made to steal a safe containing cash donated by a person by breaking the window.
The accused failed to steal a safe containing donated cash but escaped capture by the police. The accused ran away from there before the police arrived. The surveillance footage there was examined. Upon investigation, it became clear that the suspect was the same man who had committed the earlier vandalism incident.
The same suspect later broke into a religious temple in the area of Westney Road South and Bailey Street West in Ajax around 2:50 a.m. and stole a large amount of cash from a donation box there.
At least two temples in the Greater Toronto area were also targeted last month. The Chintpurni temple in Brampton was targeted on 9 September, while the Rameshwar temple in Caledon was targeted on 18 September.
In a statement posted on Facebook (Meta) on September 22, Rameshwar Temple said, “The police are investigating to arrest the person responsible for this, who is committing such an act by violating security. We are fully cooperating with the authorities so that this matter can be resolved expeditiously and the accused is in the custody of the police as soon as possible. ,
Half a dozen Hindu temples were reportedly looted in the Greater Toronto Area within ten days last year.
