Rs 12 lakh theft in E Delhi temple

Unidentified men barged into a temple and decamped with an idol of Goddess Durga and jewellery worth around Rs 12 lakh in Shahdara’s West Jyoti Nagar on Sunday.

Unidentified men barged into a temple and decamped with an idol of Goddess Durga and jewellery worth around Rs 12 lakh in Shahdara’s West Jyoti Nagar on Sunday.

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The incident came to light around 5 am when the head priest came to offer prayers at the Bara Shiv Mandir.

“The robbers have stolen the idol of Goddess Durga made of ashtadatu (eight metals). The idol had a gold crown as well.

Besides these, some silver ware and gold jewellery are also missing,” said a senior police officer on the condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

According to the police, the 40-year-old temple is located in a big campus. Inside the campus, there is a ‘Nava Durga’ temple, which has nine idols of Goddess Durga.

“The robbers have taken away the main idol. They might have entered the campus by scaling the nine-feet-high boundary wall,” said Manish Mittal, a member of the temple management committee.

Mittal said the main campus has many doors and one door was always kept open as per tradition. The police said the temple authorities decided which door was to be kept open every day, as the Goddess should not kept captive.

“The robbers seems to have found out which door was open,” added Mittal.

A senior police officer said they suspected that someone who knows the temple layout might be behind the crime.

“There is a possibility that an insider is involved in the incident. We are looking into the backgrounds of all the members of the temple,” said the officer.