‘Cat’ in the act: After row over meat found in Hindu temple, probe reveals a feline fault

by Oishani Bhattacharya

After a video showed pieces of meat scattered inside a temple premises in Hyderabad, claims have emerged that it was a deliberate act to disrupt the sanctity of a Hindu place of worship. The incident took place at the Jirra Hanuman Temple in the Tappachabutra locality of old city Hyderabad on February 12.

Some social media users alleged that unidentified people jumped inside the temple from the backside and threw chunks of meat near the Shiva Linga, which represents the Hindu deity Shiva. Others highlighted that the incident happened in a constituency represented by a Muslim politician — AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi.

The day the video emerged, Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Telangana, Raja Singh, shared the clip and called it a “deliberate act of provocation” by “anti-social elements” under Congress rule. (Archive)

Note that the MLA, who also goes by T Raja Singh, has a history of delivering hateful speeches targeting the Muslim community. He was suspended from the BJP for nearly a year after a major row over his remarks on Prophet Mohammad. However, he was on the list of the party’s official campaigners during the general election last year where he delivered hate speeches, referring to Muslims as “Pakistani Mullo” and threatening to throw them out of the country.

Media outlet NewsMeter (@NewsMeter_In) posted two clips from the temple on February 12. One showed the area where the Shiva Linga was present and the other showed individuals including the police gathered inside the premises. The caption said that pieces of meat were allegedly thrown inside the temple by some people. (Archive)

Another X user @YakkatiSowmith, reportedly a Times Now journalist as per his bio, shared the same clip showing the Shiva Linga and the meat and said that “unidentified people allegedly jumped into the temple from behind and threw meat chunk near Shiva Linga”. (Archive)

Below are more instances of similar claims.

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Fact Check

To look into the claims, we first did a keyword search that led us to several news reports on the incident. A report by India Today, published on February 12 around 2 pm, said that the police have begun their investigation and are closely examining CCTV footage. According to Deputy Commissioner of Police South-West, Chandra Mohan, who was cited in the report, since all the doors of the temple were locked, it was likely that the bits of meat were brought into the premises by an animal.

However, BJP MLA Raja Singh dismissed this theory even before the investigation was complete. He claimed that such incidents have become frequent in the city and accused the police of routinely attributing them to stray animals, like dogs or cats.

In an X post around 8:30 pm on February 12, the Tappachabutra area police shared a press note and a video statement by the station house officer along with the CCTV footage revealing the culprit. Footage retrieved from the north-facing camera of the temple clearly showed a cat carrying a piece of meat in its mouth and entering the temple premises, the police said. In the press note, they urged citizens to refrain from amplifying rumours and misinformation related to this incident.

A report by The Indian Express published the same day around 11:04 pm, said that CCTV footage from 17 cameras that covered the area was used to ascertain that no one entered the temple between the night of February 11 and the morning of February 12. Thus the cat was conclusively guilty.

Therefore, rumours that the Hindu temple was desecrated deliberately and that unidentified individuals threw meat inside the premises are baseless and false as confirmed by police investigation.

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