Chennai, Mar 1 (IANS): People of Vridhachalam in Tamil Nadu's Cuddalore district on Tuesday morning woke up to a shocking news of three gold-plated 'kalasams' atop the famous Viruthagireeswar Siva temple at Vridachalam in Cudallore district being stolen on Maha Shivaratri.

Each 'kalasam', weighed more than 300 kgs.

The temple is considered as one of the four top Siva shrines among the 1008 in the country.

Vridhachalam Police have registered a case and the investigation is on.

Local residents and temple priests on Tuesday morning found that the 'kalasams' above the 'Vimanam' in the temple missing and immediately alerted the police.

District Superintendent of Police, S. Sakthi Ganeshan after inspecting the scene said that the criminals would have used a ladder to climb top the 'Vimanam' and stolen the 'kalasams'.

While speaking to IANS, the District Superintendent of Police said: "We have examined the CCTV footage in the temple and have found proper leads. We are zeroing in on the culprits and will apprehend them soon."

The Viruthagireeswar temple at Cuddalore is believed to be more than 2,500 years old.

Several precious temple artifacts, including idols, were stolen from various temples in the state and after the temple theft squad was constituted, some of these idols and other temple artifacts could be traced back and retrieved.