Four held for stealing cash, valuables from Bangla Pitambara temple

Kanpur: A joint team of crime branch and Bithoor police arrested four people, including the kingpin with regard to the theft incident wherein thieves made away with cash and valuables from Maa Bangla Pitambara Peeth temple on Mandhana-Bithoor Road on January 12 night.
The arrests were made from Kannauj district.Two jewellers are also among the arrested accused. Police have recovered the stolen jewelry and cash from the accused. The commissioner of police has announced a reward of Rs 50,000 to the team for the breakthrough. A reward of Rs 50,000 has been announced for arresting the absconding accused, identified as Faheem.
DCP West Vijay Dhul and DCP (Crime) Salman Taj Patil said that on the night of January 12, three masked men had broken open the temple by cutting the steel net. Later, they stole a gold mangalsutra, necklace and two kg of silver umbrella, two donation boxes and jewelry worth Rs 20 lakh.
The police had registered a report against the unknown thieves on the complaint of temple caretaker Sunil Shivmangal Pandey, a resident of Azad Nagar in Nawabganj. On Tuesday, a joint team of the crime branch and the Bithoor police arrested Kunwarpal and Raja, residents of Thathia Ramnagar in Kannauj who confessed that they had executed the incident along with one of their aides, Faheem. They said that they had sold the stolen jewelry to jeweller Ganesh Kumar Soni, a resident of Thathia and Sandeep Kumar Saxena, a resident of Indargarh, Kannauj.
Later, the police also arrested both the jewellers and recovered one 1.792 grams of silver, mangalsutra weighing two tolas, silver Shivling and a bike used in the crime from them. The police said the breakthrough was made with the help of CCTV footage and surveillance. DCP Crime Salman Taj Patil said Kunwarpal, the kingpin, is a notorious thief who is expert in committing theft at temples and museums. “In 2012, Kunwar Pal committed a robbery at the Fort Museum of Maharaja Martand Singh of Rewa in Madhya Pradesh and killed a man. After this, the antique idols were stolen from there,” DCP Crime further said. Similarly, in 2017, they committed another theft in the ancient Maa Annapurna temple and Dauleshwar Dham temple located in Tirwa in Kannauj, he said and added, “There are 24 criminal cases registered against him in various police station areas of Kannauj”.