Lucknow temple desecrated; cash, jewels stolen

• Cops scanned CCTV footages of the area and spotted a man leaving the area with a bag on a bike.
• Locals and jewellers of the area threatened to close the entire Chowk market, if the miscreant is not caught soon.
• Later in the evening, Mayor Sanyunkta Bhatia visited Anandi Devi temple and met with the locals.

An unidentified man broke into 150-year-old Anandi Devi temple in Chowk area in the wee hours of Tuesday and decamped with the silver crown of the deity, gold-plated face of the idol and cash from the donation box, police said.

Significantly, Chowk police station is about 20m from the temple and a police outpost also in the neighbourhood, but cops got no whiff till morning when temple authorities called U. The incident led to protest from the locals who said the theft committed right under the nose of the police not only exposed tall claims of heavy patrolling but also desecrated the deity.

Former deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma and ex-minister Ashutosh Tandon, who is also local MLA, visited the temple and inquired with the police about the investigation. An FIR was lodged on the complaint of the temple priest Atul Awasthi.

In the FIR, it was stated that Awasthi came to the temple around 5am for morning rituals, unlocked the shutter of the main entrance and found that the lock of the inner door was broken and jewellery worth lakhs and cash missing. He informed Utkarsh Agarwal, custodian of the temple, who called U.

A police team along with senior officials rushed to the spot. Dog squad and a forensic team were also called in. Cops scanned CCTV footages of the area and spotted a man leaving the area with a bag on a bike.

The man is being treated as a suspect by the police. Deputy Commissioner of Police, West Zone, Shivasimpi Channappa said an FIR under the charges of theft has been lodged against unidentified miscreant.

"Since the shutter was not broken, it appears that the miscreant had a master key to unlock it and get inside the temple. However, he failed to unlock the inner gate and broke the lock before decamping with valuables," he said.

Claiming that the incident has hurt religious sentiments, locals and jewellers of the area threatened to close the entire Chowk market, if the miscreant is not caught soon.

Vinod Maheshwari, a resident, said the temple holds a high place among locals and everyone bows before it daily before leaving for work.

Later in the evening, Mayor Sanyunkta Bhatia visited Anandi Devi temple and met with the locals who were protesting outside the premises. She also spoke to the Lucknow police commissioner and the district magistrate and asked them to investigate the matter on priority.

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