Siwan police recover stolen ornaments worth Rs 4 lakh from temple

PATNA: The Siwan police Thursday arrested two youths and recovered stolen ornaments worth around Rs 4 lakh within four hours of the theft coming to light at the Hanuman temple, which was inaugurated by the then PM of Mauritius, Navinchandra Ramgoolam, along with CM Nitish Kumar in 2007.
The theft at the temple in the Shukla Toli area under the Town police station was noticed around 4.30 am on Thursday when the head priest and a few others came to open the temple but found the locks broken.
Temple management administrator Shambhu Dutt Shukla, an advocate, said the priest found the deity’s crown and shield stolen.
"Both were of silver weighing around 4.5kilograms. They were worth more than Rs 4 lakh. They immediately informed me," Shukla said, adding, he rushed to the Town police station to inform about the theft.
Shukla said the then Mauritius PM along with CM Nitish Kumar had inaugurated the renovated building of the temple more than 14 years ago.
"The temple was originally built by our grandfather in 1901. The former Mauritius PM is our younger brother Ganesh Dutt Shukla’s disciple," he said.
Town police station SHO Jaiprakash Pandit said police soon detained some youths based on Shukla’s suspicion.
"One of the detained youths, Rohit Kumar, broke down and confessed to having passed on information to his associates for committing the theft," the SHO added.
Pandit said on Rohit’s confession, police arrested another youth Pankaj Kumar from Nirala Nagar.
"He confessed to having passed on the stolen ornaments to two others. The entire stolen valuables were finally recovered buried in the ground near the Malwalia canal under the Rampur Hatt police station area of Siwan. All recovery was made within four hours of theft coming to light," he said.
SHO Pandit said Rohit used to visit his maternal uncle’s residence located just behind the temple and thus hatched a conspiracy to steal the ornaments with his associates.
"Both arrested youths are aged around 21 years. Police are searching if they have any criminal antecedents," Pandit said.
SHO said altogether four youths were involved in the theft and raids are on to arrest the other two.