Devotees in temple fracas over video

WHEN a Tamil teacher was allegedly berated by a fellow devotee at a Chatsworth temple for videoing the service with her cellphone, which he confiscated, she ran after him with a plastic chair.

But Lovie Naidoo claims she did not expect his reaction.

“He turned around and tried to hit me but I used the chair to defend myself,” she told

POST this week.

She said she managed to retrieve her cellphone, but that he retaliated by kicking her, resulting in her losing her balance and falling.

“Everyone looked at me and did nothing to help me or stop him,” she said. “I followed him outside and while calling for help, he got into his car and drove off.”

Naidoo, 58, has since opened a charge of assault against her fellow devotee.

The Arena Park woman said the drama took place during Sunday morning prayer service at the temple.

The man, whom she knew, was standing outside the temple when she arrived, she said.

She had not spoken to him and walked directly into the temple and waited for the service to start.

Naidoo said she recorded the service every week, so she could learn from the scriptures and discourses.

“It is for my own well-being. Nobody at the temple had a problem with me doing this,” she said. “I started recording the service with my cellphone but the man, who had by then walked in, had become enraged when he saw what I was doing.

“He began screaming at me in front of other devotees saying, ‘Not this s*** again, not this s***’. I was shocked. He stormed towards me, yanked my cellphone out of my hand and was walking out the temple.”

That was when Naidoo said she grabbed a plastic chair and chased after him.

“I wanted my phone back and shouted at him to return my property.”

The mother of two and grandmother of four, who is still reeling from the encounter, said she could not believe the harsh and violent treatment meted out.

“The temple committee did nothing to reprimand the man. He took advantage of me because I am older.”

The man declined to comment and the head of the temple committee could not be reached for comment.

Police confirmed the assault case.