Two unidentified men allegedly broke inside church premises in Outer Delhi, decamped with donations worth Rs 2.5 lakh cash, the Holy Cross and the photograph of Mother Mary.
According to police, the incident was reported around 7.30am on Friday when the security guard of the St Basil (Orthodox) Church situated in C-Block of Rohini Sector 3 found that the main door of the Church was found tampered. The church was set up in 1999. There is a playschool and an institution for the mentally deranged inside the church premises.
MN Tiwari, Deputy Commissioner of Police, (Rohini) said, “A case has been registered at the Rohini (South) police station under Section 379 (theft) and 441(trespass) of the Indian Penal Code. Further investigation is on,”
As per the CCTV footage recovered from the church premises, the two unidentified men gained access to the church premises around 4am on Friday. “In the CCTV grabs, two men scaled the boundary wall of the church premises with the help of a rope, broke the window of the main church building and entered the place,” said a senior police officer.
Once inside the main church, the two men allegedly damaged the photograph of the Holy Jesus and Mother Mary. The duo then went and broke open the donation box and decamped with Rs 2.5 lakh cash.
A police officer, privy to the investigation said the two accused stayed inside the main church building for nearly one hour and fled away from the same window from where they gained entry.
Once the security guard found the main door tampered, he informed priest of the Church Jijo Kurian Thomas about the incident.
A team of senior police officers including the DCP, Addl DCP, ACP and SHO reached the spot and took stock of the situation. A team from the Forensic Science laboratory (FSl) was called in to lift the fingerprints.
Police sources said that apart from the Rohini (South) police station, 12 teams of the Delhi police including the Special Task Force have been assigned to nab the culprits at the earliest.
The incident comes two years after a church was allegedly attacked in Dilshad Garden in December 2014. Following which, the city churches witnessed a string of attacks. The then Delhi Police Commissioner had set up round-the-clock patrolling outside all the religious institutions in the aftermath of the attacks on churches.