Thieves stole a more than a 100-year-old idol of Garuda, made up of black granite, from a village temple in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur district, the police said on Friday.
The incident took place on August 25-26 night around 1 am in the Bhanwar Ganesh temple in Pali village, Bilaspur Senior Superintendent of Police Parul Mathur said.
Around four miscreants entered the temple and they held the priest, Mahesh Ram Kewat, captive and snatched the temple keys from him, she said.
They stole the idol of Garuda, embedded in the sanctum sanctorum, and fled.
A police dog squad and forensic team reached the spot. Efforts are on to nab the criminals and recover the idol, Mathur said.