Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Oct 31: Thefts happened at two places, one at Lord Ayyappa temple near the bus stand at Mulky, and other at Puthran Moolasthana there, on the night of Monday October 29. The thieves took away Lord Ayyappa, Ganapati, and Subramanya Swamy idols from the temple, along with cash and other things.

In a timely operation, Mulky police could find all the three stolen idols having been abandoned inside the nearby bushes, within a couple of hours since the theft.

Initially, two young men who arrived at the temple at around 7 am on Tuesday to offer prayers to the deities were surprised to find that the idols were not there. The police were contacted thereafter.

It was also found that the thieves had targeted Puthran Moolasthana located by the side of the said temple where they had vandalized a room attached to it, broke open the almirah, and took away things found inside along with two donation boxes.

A team led by police sub-inspector, Sheetal Alagooru, under the guidance of Mulky police inspector, Ananthapadmanabha, took over investigation. Based on clues provided by the sniffer dogs, footage of the thefts were collected from the CC cameras in the locality. The CCTV footage showed a person standing near bushes for some time with a bag in hand. He later returned without the bag in hand. The police found during their search near the bushes that the bag had been left there and it had the three stolen idols. It is said that the police have got definite clues about the thieves.

Later, MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, BJP leader Jagadish Adhikari, town panchayat president Sunil Alva, Guruswamy Girish Palimar and Samiti president Gopinath Padanga offered mass prayers to the deities seeking help on nabbing the culprits.