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Pandit Devendra Shukla was at the Samaj Temple and his wife and daughter at their West Ramapo Avenue home nearby when a black SUV parked out front this past weekend.
A Ring doorbell camera shows a woman in a COVID mask walking up to the front door, knocking hard twice, then peering into a window.
The woman then heads back to the car and returns with a second woman.
The second one, also wearing a mask with a large scarf wrapped around her head and neck, pulls a cloth glove onto her left hand and tries the door as her companion walks around the side of the house. The door appeared locked.
The woman then heads around the same side of the house, presumably to join her companion.
They’re not seen again.
Mahwah Police Chief Timothy O’Hara said his detectives are actively working the case.
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𝗔𝗡𝗬𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗿 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼 𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱/𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝘃𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝘀𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗵𝘄𝗮𝗵 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: (𝟮𝟬𝟭) 𝟱𝟮𝟵-𝟭𝟬𝟬𝟬.
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The women entered an area of the house that’s being renovated through a side door, a temple volunteer said on Tuesday, Feb. 20.
They fled without taking anything, he said, apparently after hearing the priest’s wife heading to the stairway upstairs.
It was yet another test of Shukla’s faith, which has buoyed him through a horrific series of ordeals.
Shukla came to America from India with the promise of $500 a week and free room and board to be a priest at a temple in Corona, Queens.
He ended up forced to live in a tiny room and working as much as 18 hours a day doing menial work in addition to his priestly duties.
Shukla’s passport was also taken from him and he was repeatedly threatened with likely deportation, authorities said.
Shukla fled the church with help from congregants who learned of his plight. He moved his family to Mahwah about 16 years ago.
His troubles didn’t end there.
The priest’s daughter was only 6 and sitting in the back seat of her father’s car when a neighbor attacked Shukla at the Interstate Shopping Center off Route 17 in Ramsey five years ago.
Shukla told police he was driving through the parking lot when the man ran up, screamed and called him a “dirty Indian,” then punched him in the face, authorities said at the time.
The girl was shaken again this past Sunday when the two strangers entered the family’s home.
“She’s scared to be alone in the house or go to any part of the house by herself,” the temple volunteer told Daily Voice.
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