Court orders release of ornaments

THE DISTRICT court on Monday ordered the release of stolen gold and sliver, recovered about 24 years ago from the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, to its trust. The court has fixed November 2 for the release of the ornaments.

THE DISTRICT court on Monday ordered the release of stolen gold and sliver, recovered about 24 years ago from the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, to its trust. The court has fixed November 2 for the release of the ornaments.

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Hearing a petition submitted by advocate of the temple trust, chief judicial magistrate PN Srivastva issued an order to the district treasury to hand over the and silver ornaments to ADM Indra Vikram Singh, an authorised representative of the divisional commissioner who is the chief executive officer of the trust.

The CJM ordered to hand over silver items on November 2 in presence of court officials. To recall, the precious items and ornaments of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple including 2.555 Kilogram gold from Jyotirlinga of Lord Shiva and 5.17 kg silver and silver items were stolen on January 5, 1983. This had sparked massive demonstration in the district at that time.

Later, the police recovered the stolen items and arrested the accused including the main culprit Markandey Singh from Chakia in Chandauli district on January 22, 1983. Former state minister Shatrudh Prakash, Narendra Kumar Goenka and Batuk Nath Maurya filed a PIL at the Allahabad High Court for the release of recovered ornaments to the temple trust.

Following this directive, advocate of the temple trust Anil Kumar Singh filed an application to the CJM to get back the ornaments from the locker of the district treasury.