Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (SP)
Kundapur, Mar 1: Kollur Goddess Mookambika temple, which is a famous pilgrimage centre nested among hilly terrain of the taluk, has been witnessing frauds involving its own employees and others, now and then. The measures taken by the temple management to avert frauds have come to naught because of employees who somehow find ways and means to hoodwink the management with the involvement of people in key positions and usurp temple property.
In the recent past, an employee of the temple, who was in possession of keys to the safe where gold and silver ornaments offered to the Goddess by devotees in fulfillment of their religious vows were kept, had suddenly gone on leave without obtaining prior permission for long. He also could not be contacted over phone, which gave jitters to the temple administration.
The police, working under the guidance of district superintendent of police (SP), Annamalai, have formally arrested four persons who reportedly joined hands with temple employee and prime accused, Shivaram Madiwala, in stealing the ornaments.
The SP, who addressed a press conference in the temple town on Tuesday March 1, said that a list ofover 20 people who worked in connivance with the prime accused has been prepared and that the police will soon bring out the entire truth behind this episode by questioning each one of them.
Annamalai, giving details of the fraud at the press conference held at Kollur police station, said that the prime accused, Shivaram Madiwala, not only got involved with fleecing the temple of several lacs of rupees by stealing the ornaments, but also cheated the devotees by issuing to them temporary receipts for the ornaments offered by them out of deep devotion. Some of the ornaments, against pledge of which loans were raised, have been recovered from financial institutions concerned, he explained.
During investigation, it came to light that out of 3.172 kg of ornaments, 2.521 kg ornaments had gone missing. Madiwala was working in a counter of the temple, and he was assisted by Gangadhar Hegde, who managed computer maintenance of the temple and therefore, knew passwords, in taking ornaments away. Prasad Achar, who worked in the second shift at the counter where Madiwala worked, and Nagaraja Sheregar, another employee of the temple who remains suspended for his involvement in an earlier fraud, have been arrested. The fifth accused arrested is Ganesh Poojary, who was a security staff deployed at the temple in the past, and who currently works as security guard for a hotel.
The SP said that 2.244 kg of gold ornaments pledged to banks and private cooperatives have been recovered, and that the police are yet to find out the whereabouts of remaining 277 grams of ornaments. The recovered ornaments include 392 gram gold necklace studded with red and green stones, 217 gram green stone studded lotus flower, a 54 grams Misri chain, 93 gram golden 'Laxmi chain', and several other items.
Annamalai has requested the general public to inform the police about the ornaments if any they had delivered to the temple without obtaining receipt thereof, to help the police to reach to the bottom of this entire fraud. While inviting the people to provide information they have by either calling the office of SP, Annamalai, office of deputy superintendent of police, Manjunath Shetty, office of circle inspector, Sudarshan, or Kollur police station. He assured to keep the details so given confidential.
The police at present have names of 17 other persons whose roles in the said fraud they want to investigate. Annamalai, who expressed confidence of bringing into open the entire gamut of this fraud, suspects involvement of at least some of the top ten people in temple management in this fraud.
This fraud, which has given clue to the lax handling of ornaments and lack of proper security controls to ensure safety and security of temple assets given by devotees by trusting the temple staff, has also opened up suspicion among the general public about possibilities of irregularities occurring in the supply of provisions and other consumables to the temple on day today basis.