Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur

Kundapur, Aug 15: Thieves broke into Saukuru Durgaparameshwari Temple in the taluk and decamped with gold, diamonds, silver and cash worth Rs 70 lac. The theft came to light on Saturday August 15.

This the sixth case of temple theft reported in the coastal districts in the last one-and-a-half months. The police are still groping in the dark in these cases.

On Friday night, the thieves broke into Saukuru Durgaparameshwari Temple and decamped with a large silver mask that was on the diety, a golden visage, 15-diamond necklace weighing half a kg, a golden idol weighing one-and-a-half kg, a silver idol weighing one kg, a silver mask that was on Veerabhadra idol, two cash boxes, a silver bell, two karimani chains, a nose ring, silver plates weighing 100 grams, and four small Panchaloha idols. Moreover, the temple priest said that the thieves also took away 2 kg of gold ornaments which were donated by devotees over the past two years, and which were kept in the donation box. Altogether, a theft of valuable items worth Rs 70 lac has been reported.

The temple priest had as usual locked the doors at around 8.30 pm on Friday, and it is suspected that the theft took place during the night. The theft was discovered after the priest opened the temple doors on Saturday.

No security: The temple falls under the government's muzrai department, but no steps have been taken for its security. It has been a year since the only siren in the temple stopped working. Also, despite a spate of temple thefts, this particular temple is yet to get a CCTV camera. It does not even have a secure chamber, hence the gold and silver ornaments and cash donated by devotees over the last two years remained in the donation box. The locals said that such negligence towarsds security in the temples gives rise to suspicions. The last time a theft took place in the same temple, about 15 years back, the police had found that it had been an insider's job, they pointed out.

A canine squad was pressed into action, but as it rained during the night, no clues could be found. It is suspected that thieves who looted other temples over the last month may be behind this incident too. Kundapur DySP M Manjunath Shetty, circle inspector P M Diwakar, SI Nasir Hussain and others police personnel have formed a team to investigate the theft.

Kundapur police have registered a case.