In West Bengal, miscreants vandalise church again

Unidentified persons vandalised a church at Taherpur in West Bengal’s Nadia district, the police said on Friday.

Unidentified persons entered the St Thomas Catholic Church at Taherpur late Thursday night in an attempt to steal valuables, Nadia Superintendent of Police Bharatlal Meena said.

Nadia district magistrate Vijay Bharati has confirmed the incident.

On Friday morning, the church’s caretaker found that the main door, which he had locked on Thursday evening, was ajar and a few belongings and the ciborium were broken and thrown outside, the police said.

“Though all the valuables of the church are intact, we are trying to find out how they managed entering the church despite the main door and windows were locked from inside,” a senior police officer of Taherpur police station said.

“We have received a complaint from the church authorities and started a case of attempt of theft,” he said. Father Satish Makal said that the ciborium and the tabernacle were thrown outside the church building.

During the initial probe, the police found that nobody in the church’s densely-populated neighbourhood “heard anything suspicious” on Thursday night.

The police had questioned two priests and a couple of medical officers staying at an adjacent building.

Taherpur’s St Thomas Catholic Church is around 25 km away from the RanaghatChurch where a septuagenarian nun was allegedly raped by seven persons after a robbery there in March.