3 ‘ashtadhatu’ idols worth 2cr stolen from temple in Jalaun dist

Kanpur: Three ‘ashtadhatu’ idols of Lord Rama, Lakshman and Janaki, worth more than two crore, were reportedly stolen from the ancient Ram Janaki temple of Margaya village under Kadaura police station in Jalaun district late Wednesday night.
A case has been registered in this connection and police have started investigation and a hunt is on to arrest the accused. Tension gripped the area following the incident as devotees created a ruckus and staged a dharna in front of the temple demanding the immediate arrest of the accused.
Locals said, the theft came to light when temple priest Lokendra Das reached the temple on Thursday morning only to find the main door open and the lock of the sanctorum broken. “I had closed the doors after performing ‘aarti’ on Wednesday night,” Das said and added that three suspicious men spent a night in the temple premises saying that they were willing to take a 40-bigha land adjacent to temple and were there to visit the site.
“When the priest woke up at 7 in the morning on Thursday, he saw that the lock of the temple was broken and all the three idols were missing,” said a police official privy to the investigation. Meanwhile, on being informed, Circle Officer (CO) Kalpi Devendra Pachauri reached the spot and initiated the investigations with the help of forensic experts. “As per the inputs provided by the temple priest regarding the suspicious men, they are being traced, villagers staying near the temple are also being questioned regarding their identity,” said CO further.
The 2.5-feet long idols of Lord Rama, Laxman and Janaki were installed in the temple that was built around five decades ago.
Locals however attribute the rising cases of temple burglary to the slipshod attitude of the police.