Thieves burgle Kalyan temple, decamp with deity’s silver ornaments

The Bazarpeth police have registered a burglary case against unknown persons under Sections 380 (theft) and 457 (house-breaking) of the IPC and started a probe. No arrests have been made in the case so far

Kalyan: The Dakshin Mukhi Maruti temple in Kalyan, a place of worship that attracts a large number of devotees, was burgled in the early hours of Tuesday. The thieves decamped with silver and cash worth around ₹96,000 as well as the Digital Video Recorder machine, wifi routers, and CCTV installed in the temple.

Thieves burgle Kalyan temple, decamp with deity’s silver ornaments

Ramchandra Shetye, vice-president of the temple trust, revealed that this was the second time in two months that thieves had targeted the Hanuman temple. “On May 27, some people broke into the godown near the temple and stole copper and steel vessels,” he said. “The police solved that case and arrested one person. They recovered the stolen puja vessels, but those vessels and even carpets were stolen again.”

The Bazarpeth police have registered a burglary case against unknown persons under Sections 380 (theft) and 457 (house-breaking) of the IPC and started a probe. No arrests have been made in the case so far.

The complainant Jitesh Deshmukh, who is the treasurer of the temple trust, said that the priest went home after shutting the temple at around 10 pm on Monday. The incident came to light at around 5 am on Tuesday when Sunil Bajaj, a trustee of the temple, came to open the temple and found the silver ornaments from the sanctum sanctorum missing.

Pawar said that their preliminary investigation indicated that the thief or thieves had carried out a recce of the temple before executing the theft. “We found that the temple door was opened by using screwdrivers,” he said. “As of now, we are yet to ascertain how many people were involved in the theft since they also took away the CCTV and DVR machines, which could have given us some clue.” Police sources said that they also deployed a dog squad and a fingerprint expert to assist with the investigation.

Shetye, who also reached the temple at 5.15 am, said this was the first Dakshin Mukhi Hanuman temple in Kalyan and was nearly 50 years old. “There is another Dakshin Mukhi Hanuman temple which has come up in the Sindhi Gate area but this is the main temple believed to be “jagrut devasthan,” he said. “Hundreds of devotees from Kalyan, Thakurli, Dombivli visit the temple on Saturdays and Tuesdays.”

Shetye said the deity’s silver ornaments were made about 10 years ago and some were gifted by devotees. “Among the things that the thieves stole was the silver crown, the silver umbrella, and the silver gada or mace of Hanumanji, The temple’s donation boxes were also burgled. We don’t have any suspects as yet.”