Digapahandi: As all sorts of activities in temples have dropped down due to the COVID-19 situation, thieves are making merry targeting the temples due to sparse or no crowd inside temples. The miscreants looted money close to Rs 12,000 from the donation box inside the temple.
Sri Chandrakalpeshwar temple at Dhanyarasi village of Gadagovindpur panchayat under Digapahandi block in Ganjam district was the latest one to have been burgled.
Like any other day, the priest went to the temple early Sunday morning to perform ‘mangal alati’ ritual. He was shocked to find the temple’s main gate ajar with its lock broken.
He did not take much time to understand it that the temple had been burgled. He immediately informed the temple management committee members and the villagers about the incident.
It was when all of them were convinced that the temple had been burgled that they lodged an FIR with K Nuagaon police station.
The police reached the temple and carried out an investigation. It was found out that the burglary had taken place at any time during Saturday night. The miscreants not only looted money from the donation box but also damaged furniture and other articles of office and store rooms.
Efforts are on to nab the burglars, police said.
PNN