Gandhi statue outside Queens temple targeted by vandals twice in one month
NEW YORK -- Police are searching for a group of suspects after a Hindu temple in Queens was vandalized twice in less than two weeks.
Surveillance video shows someone thrashing a statue of Mahatma Gandhi with a sledgehammer overnight Tuesday. He smashes the head off, then topples it over. Minutes later, a group of six stomp on it and take turns hammering the statue before taking off.
Lakhram Maharaj is the founder of Shri Tulsi Mandir, the Hindu temple in South Richmond Hill.
"To see them coming after us like this is very painful," he told CBS2's Ali Bauman.
He discovered the Gandhi statue outside in the morning, reduced to rubble. The word "dog" was spray painted both in front of the temple and down the block.
"For someone to do that, you can see the hatred," congregant Romeo Hitlall said.
That same statue was vandalized less than two weeks earlier, on Aug. 3. Again, someone knocked it over in the night, breaking off the hands and nose.
"And when the Gandhi statue was vandalized, that really flew in the face of all of our beliefs and it's very disturbing for the community," Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar said.
The NYPD is investigating both incidents as possible hate crimes.
Citywide, hate crimes are up 15.7% compared to this time last year and up 127.3% compared to two years ago.
"We're definitely worried because a statue, we don't know what's next," Hitlall said.
Maharaj says many in the community are now afraid to go to temple.
"I cannot show the congregation that I am worried because if I show them that I'm worrying and I'm not strong, how will they be strong?" he said.
The temple cannot afford to replace the statue right now. It was handcrafted for them and cost about $4,000.
"I wanna know why they did it," Maharaj said.
Investigators ask anyone with information on either incident to come forward.
