Author Datta Damodar Naik booked for ‘hurting religious sentiments’ in Goa

Panaji: The Goa Police on Monday charged author Datta Damodar Naik with hurting religious sentiments, The Indian Express reported.

In a recent interview, the 70-year-old Sahitya Akademi awardee reportedly called temple priests ‘looters’, according to the First Information Report.

Naik , who was quoted as calling himself a ‘staunch atheist’ , claimed he was not scared by the case against him.

The complainant Satish Bhat alleged in a filing at the Canacona police station that Naik in an interview to a local news channel made the derogatory remarks against the Hindu monastic temple, Shree Samsthan Gokarn Partagali Jeevottam Math located in Partagali, South Goa.

Satish Bhat told the outlet that ‘In our culture, we respect everyone’s opinion, whether someone is an atheist or not,” adding that ‘But through these remarks, he has deliberately hurt religious sentiments and insulted our culture.’

Another complaint filed at the Panaji police station by a person associated with the Gomantak Mandir Mahasangh and Religious Institutions Federation alleged that Naik made grave offence by calling the priests ‘looters’.

The complaint said that belief in God is a personal matter but branding priests and monasteries as looters is an offence under law because it hurts religious sentiments that could lead to ‘social unrest’.

The case is filed against the author under a section of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita related to deliberate and malicious acts aiming to insult or outrage the religious feelings of any class of citizens.

However, Naik made it clear to the outlet that he had said at an event that ‘temple priests looted money from people.’

Explaining his stand Naik reportedly said: ‘Later, I clarified that I meant to say they ‘extracted’ money… It is true, temples are extracting money. I questioned what was built with this money? Have they built any schools, hospitals? Where is all this money going?’

Naik who writes in Konkani, Marathi and English asked ‘What about my sentiments as an atheist?’, adding that space for rational thinking is shrinking.

In 2006, Naik won the Sahitya Akademi award in Konkani for his collection of essays Jai Kai Jui.

He founded the rationalist group Samata Andolan in Goa in the early 1990s.