Unidentified men stole four idols made of eight precious metals from Adinath Digamber Jain temple in Dankaur here on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday, the police said.
The accused committed the theft when nobody was present at the temple.
The incident came to light the next morning, after the priest found the front gate, a second gate and an iron slide moulded and entered the temple to discover that the idols were missing. He then called the police.
Pramod Kumar Jain, the priest at the temple, said it was the third attempt of theft in the last 20 years, adding that earlier the idols had been successfully recovered with the help of the police. “The idols were established when the temple was built in 1988. They are worth of crores of rupees,” Mr. Jain said.
Rajpal Singh Tomar, SHO, Dankaur, said that the footage of the CCTV camera in the area has revealed that a car had stopped near the temple around 1.30 a.m. and was there till around 2.30 a.m. “We have collected fingerprint samples from the temple, recovery of idols and arrests will be made soon,” Mr. Tomar said.