A local authority in Mumbai is being taken to the High Court over the removal of a 122-year-old cross that is reported to have stood on private land, reports New Delhi Television.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) removed the cross in Bandra, a wealthy Mumbai suburb, on 29 April in accordance with a Bombay High Court order directing them to remove all unauthorized religious structures before November 2017.
Mumbai Catholic association members and Bandra residents protested outside the BMC office, holding banners that read: “Shame on the BMC”.
“It’s a known fact that the D’monte Cross is an age-old cross and is over 100 years old, it’s not a new cross which has been recently built. So that’s why the people are really hurt with what they have done; it could be done in a better way, they could have called the people and could have told them that this is the problem” said Bandra resident Karen D’Mello, who participated in the protest.
Earlier in April, the condemnation of the demolition of a cross in Kerala drew its chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, to deny that the state government was opposed to the symbol of the cross.