Gone in 60 minutes: Now, thieves strike at two Chandigarh temples

A day after theft at a temple in Sector 19, burglars struck at two temples in the neighbouring Sector 27 and fled with deity ornaments worth at least Rs 7 lakh on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday.

This was sixth such incident at the tricity temples this year. All the cases remain unsolved. Police say three men carried out the thefts within an hour. The two temples are at a short distance from each other.

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage shows the trio entering the Sanatan Dharam temple at 1:30am and leaving the Jain temple through the priests’ residential compound around 2:30am.

They took away a chhattar (umbrella structure) — weighing around 10kg — from the 10-foot Bahubali statue at the Jain temple and five silver mukuts (crowns) besides one chhattar from the Shiv idol at the other temple, said police.

Cases have been registered under Section 380 (theft at dwelling house, etc) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Sector-26 police station.

Two thieves had fled with deity ornaments worth Rs 20,000 from Sita Ram temple in Sector 19 on the intervening night ofMondayand Tuesday.The damage was minimised by proactive priests, who after multiple cases of temple thefts in the tricity, had replaced the silver ornaments, worth Rs 2 lakh, with artificial ones a month ago.

Thieves took away a chhattar from atop Bahubali’s idol at the Jain temple. (Karun Sharma/HT)

‘Same modus operandi’

Hinting to a link between various thefts at temples in the city this year, UT deputy superintendent of police Satish Kumar said: “The modus operandi is similar to other thefts that have taken place in the city. The burglars conducted a recce before committing the crimes. They knew the location of CCTV cameras. They first changed the position of cameras on entering the temple.”

Another cop, privy to the investigation, said the team suspects there is a single gang operating in the city and specifically targeting temples in the wee hours.

“The CCTV footage and quizzing of priests points to same men behind thefts at temples in the past two days,” said the cop. Police are also gathering forensic clues to nail the accused.