Accordingly a ‘devotional’ thief was caught on camera offering prayers to a deity, seconds before stealing the idol’s crown on wednesday evening. Meanwhile the CCTV footage of the incident which has surfaced shows the thief entering the sanctum sanctorum of Durga temple in the city's Gunfoundry area at around 6.20 pm and he then goes on to pray to the deity for a few minutes. Perhaps he folds his hands, holds his ears, turning around in the spot several times and even bows before the idol.
Furthermore following this, he pulls the crown off the idol. On seeing that the crown was tied to the idol with what seems to be a thick thread or a necklace, he is seen trying to untangle it. As he struggles to do so, he takes a break, to continue his prayers, before finally untangling it and making away with the idol, by hiding it in his clothes. Currently a case has been registered under Section 380 (Theft in dwelling house) of the IPC.
SHO Kandula ravi Kumar from the Abids police station told "The custodians of the temple approached us last night and filed a complaint and we have registered a case. Further investigation is underway". Apparently the police are also going through CCTV footage to analyze if the accused had visited the temple recently, to survey the premises before carrying out the theft. Moreover earlier this year, three crowns were stolen from the of Sri govinda raja Swamy temple in Andhra Pradesh's tirupati town and the three crowns which were stolen weighed approximately 1,351 gm and were valued at around Rs 50 lakh.
