{"id":309277,"date":"2026-01-08T19:44:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T14:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/?p=309277"},"modified":"2026-05-07T10:47:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T05:17:51","slug":"bjp-adds-communal-spin-to-idol-vandalism-in-west-bengals-santipur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/bjp-adds-communal-spin-to-idol-vandalism-in-west-bengals-santipur\/","title":{"rendered":"BJP adds communal spin to idol vandalism in West Bengal&#8217;s Santipur"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Images depicting unfinished idols of Hindu deities Kali and Saraswati lying desecrated are viral on social media with the claim that the vanadlism in Santipur, West Bengal, was a &#8220;direct attack on Hindu faith&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) posted the images on January 7 claiming it was &#8220;another brutal assault on Sanatan Dharma in Mamata&#8217;s Jungle Raj.&#8221; He also stated, &#8220;The miscreants struck in the morning, smashing these sacred idols meant for puja, a direct attack on Hindu faith and the livelihood of artisans. This is the latest episode in TMC-ruled Bengal\u2019s rising wave of anti-Hindu hatred&#8230;&#8221; (<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/Bh3Y5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Archive<\/a>)<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">ANOTHER BRUTAL ASSAULT ON SANATAN DHARMA IN MAMATA\u2019S JUNGLE RAJ!<\/p>\n<p>Around 50\u201360 Kali and Saraswati idols, painstakingly crafted by potter Jayanta Das, were viciously vandalised outside his workshop, in front of Loknath Temple near Matal Garh, Shantipur.<\/p>\n<p>The miscreants struck in\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wsGgMajq2h\">pic.twitter.com\/wsGgMajq2h<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/amitmalviya\/status\/2008789144596521269?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 7, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Readers should note that in Alt News&#8217;s analysis of all reports from 2025, Amit Malviya <a href=\"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/political-misinformation-in-2025-who-shared-who-was-targeted-how-did-it-shape-narratives\/#:~:text=BJP%20IT%20cell%20head%20Amit%20Malviya%20topped%20the%20list%20of%20political%20figures%20who%20spread%20misinformation%20in%202025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">topped the list of politicians<\/a> who shared political misinformation previous year. False political claims made by him was debunked by us 12 times in 2025.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/political-misinformation-in-2025-who-shared-who-was-targeted-how-did-it-shape-narratives\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Political misinformation in 2025: Who shared the most? Who were targeted? How did it shape narratives?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>BJP national spokesperson Pradip Bhandari (@pradip103) shared the same images on January 7 and claimed that &#8220;Mamata Banerjee is shielding rabid, dangerous fundamentalists in Bengal&#8221; (<a href=\"http:\/\/archive.is\/Knh0Y\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Archive<\/a>)<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Mamata Banerjee is shielding rabid, dangerous fundamentalists in Bengal.<\/p>\n<p>In a shocking display, Multiple Ma Kali and Ma Saraswati murti were DESECRATED near the Loknath Temple in Shantipur &#8211; SYMBOL OF BENGALs DEVOTIONAL &amp; CULTURAL ASMITA.<\/p>\n<p>Few days before, famous singer\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3jdY0V4ZJO\">pic.twitter.com\/3jdY0V4ZJO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pradeep Bhandari(\u092a\u094d\u0930\u0926\u0940\u092a \u092d\u0902\u0921\u093e\u0930\u0940)\ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf3 (@pradip103) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pradip103\/status\/2008800953047412980?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 7, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Several other users, including BJP West Bengal media co-in charge <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/Y1uYs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Keya Ghosh<\/a> and pro-BJP influencer <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/AGBQn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@MeghUpdates<\/a>, posted the same set of images with similar claims:<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-309277 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-full'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/bjp-adds-communal-spin-to-idol-vandalism-in-west-bengals-santipur\/screenshot-2026-01-08-123334\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"946\" height=\"1422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-08-123334.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-08-123334.jpg 946w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-08-123334-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-08-123334-681x1024.jpg 681w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-08-123334-768x1154.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 946px) 100vw, 946px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/bjp-adds-communal-spin-to-idol-vandalism-in-west-bengals-santipur\/screenshot-2026-01-08-123348\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"887\" height=\"1530\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-08-123348.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-08-123348.jpg 887w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-08-123348-174x300.jpg 174w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-08-123348-594x1024.jpg 594w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-08-123348-768x1325.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 887px) 100vw, 887px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/bjp-adds-communal-spin-to-idol-vandalism-in-west-bengals-santipur\/screenshot-2026-01-08-123358\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"901\" height=\"906\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-08-123358.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-08-123358.jpg 901w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-08-123358-298x300.jpg 298w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-08-123358-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-08-123358-768x772.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 901px) 100vw, 901px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<h4>Fact Check<\/h4>\n<p>Upon running a relevant keyword search in Bengali, we came across news reports carrying the same images. According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.etvbharat.com\/bn\/state\/tension-prevails-in-santipur-over-allegations-of-60-70-idols-being-vandalised-west-bengal-news-wbs26010704895\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report<\/a> by Aaj Tak Bangla from January 7, the incident happened in the early hours of January 6 in front of a Loknath temple in the Sarbanandi Para area of Santipur town in Nadia district of West Bengal. Nearly 60-70 unfinished idols of Hindu deities Kali and Saraswati placed outside artisan Jayanta Das&#8217; workshop were vandalised by some individuals.<\/p>\n<p>The next morning, when Das discovered the the idols in that state, he filed a police complaint. According to the report, CCTV footage accessed by police showed two men vandalizing the idols, whom Jayanta Das could identify as two brothers, Asit Das and Amit Das. The report also states that Jayanta Das had an argument with the two brothers the day before the incident.<\/p>\n<p>The report quotes additional superintendent of police Ranaghat Laltu Halder as stating that there is no communal or political angle to the case. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.etvbharat.com\/bn\/state\/tension-prevails-in-santipur-over-allegations-of-60-70-idols-being-vandalised-west-bengal-news-wbs26010704895\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ETV Bharat<\/a>, too, reported the incident and mentioned the same details.<\/p>\n<p>Alt News accessed the police complaint filed by Jayanta Das. While describing his interaction with the brothers the day before, Das states, &#8220;I have a factory near Matal Garh Loknath Temple. There were nearly 85 idols of Kali and Saraswati, some finished and some partially finished. On January 6, 2026, around 6 am, I went to my factory and saw all the idols had been vandalised. Upon checking the CCTV footage of the camera of a house opposite my factory, I saw: 1) Amit De, 2)\u00a0 Asit De, both sons of Gobinda De&#8230; They were seen breaking the idols with sticks and throwing them away. They carried this out in the early hours of January 6. This has caused me a financial loss of almost Rs 1 Lakh&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n<p>It should be noted that Aaj Tak got the surnames of the two accused wrong. From the complaint, it is clear that the two accused were Amit De and Asit De.<\/p>\n<p>ASP Laltu Halder later held a press conference where he stated, &#8220;The day before the incident, January 5, Jayanta Das&#8217;s son was working on the idols when Asit and Amit De, in an inebriated state, approached him and started harassing Das&#8217;s son. On the day of the incident, around 2-2:30 am, when Das&#8217;s son was working, a drunk Amit approached him and started causing a disturbance. The complainant&#8217;s son asked him to leave several times, saying that he was busy with work related to a puja being organised in his house. He told Amit that he was also invited to the puja. But Amit still did not budge, at which point, Das&#8217;s son closed the shutter of the shop and left. And the next day, in the morning, they found that the idols had been vandalised. The complainants then filed a complaint at Santipur police station, following which the police checked the CCTV footage. It was found that the brothers, Asit and Amit, had vandalised the idols. A case has been filed in Santipur police station, and both the accused are absconding. We hope to arrest them soon&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>A reporter specifically asked Halder if there was any political or communal angle to this case. The ASP clearly said there was none.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-video\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/reel\/2924858624387018\/\" data-width=\"500\" data-show-text=\"true\"><\/div>\n<p>To sum up, it is clear that the case of vandalism to Kali and Saraswati idols was falsely given a communal angle by BJP leaders on social media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Images depicting unfinished idols of Hindu deities Kali and Saraswati lying desecrated are viral on social media with the claim that the vanadlism in Santipur, West Bengal, was a &#8220;direct attack on Hindu faith&#8221;. BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) posted the images on January 7 claiming it was &#8220;another brutal assault on Sanatan [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":309339,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[693],"an_content_type":[],"coauthors":[722],"class_list":["post-309277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-featured","fact_checks_claim_type-economics"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>BJP adds communal spin to idol vandalism in West Bengal&#039;s Santipur - Alt News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BJP adds communal spin to idol vandalism in West Bengal&#039;s Santipur - Alt News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Images depicting unfinished idols of Hindu deities Kali and Saraswati lying desecrated are viral on social media with the claim that the vanadlism in Santipur, West Bengal, was a &#8220;direct attack on Hindu faith&#8221;. BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) posted the images on January 7 claiming it was &#8220;another brutal assault on Sanatan [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/bjp-adds-communal-spin-to-idol-vandalism-in-west-bengals-santipur\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Alt News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/altnews.in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-08T14:14:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-07T05:17:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/Copy-of-FI-Kit-28.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Oishani Bhattacharya\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@oishanib_\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AltNews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Oishani Bhattacharya\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altnews.in\\\/english-clone-2026\\\/bjp-adds-communal-spin-to-idol-vandalism-in-west-bengals-santipur\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altnews.in\\\/english-clone-2026\\\/bjp-adds-communal-spin-to-idol-vandalism-in-west-bengals-santipur\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Oishani Bhattacharya\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altnews.in\\\/english-clone-2026\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6d4ca01f5d4cbecef41bff8f61a8e693\"},\"headline\":\"BJP adds communal spin to idol vandalism in West Bengal&#8217;s Santipur\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-08T14:14:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-07T05:17:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altnews.in\\\/english-clone-2026\\\/bjp-adds-communal-spin-to-idol-vandalism-in-west-bengals-santipur\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":922,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altnews.in\\\/english-clone-2026\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altnews.in\\\/english-clone-2026\\\/bjp-adds-communal-spin-to-idol-vandalism-in-west-bengals-santipur\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altnews.in\\\/english-clone-2026\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/10\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/Copy-of-FI-Kit-28.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"featured\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altnews.in\\\/english-clone-2026\\\/bjp-adds-communal-spin-to-idol-vandalism-in-west-bengals-santipur\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altnews.in\\\/english-clone-2026\\\/bjp-adds-communal-spin-to-idol-vandalism-in-west-bengals-santipur\\\/\",\"name\":\"BJP adds communal spin to idol vandalism in West Bengal's Santipur - 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