Chhattisgarh Director General of Police, in a letter issued to all the range inspectors general of police and district Superintendents of Police, instructed them to provide every possible assistance to the CBI team in the investigation of Karnataka Jain temple idol theft case, Said in an official statement issued here on Friday.
On the intervening night of July 5 and 6, 2013, 15 idols had been stolen from the Siddhant Mandir of the Jain community situated under the Mudabidri police station area of Mangalore city in Karnataka. According to the temple management, the estimated cost of the stolen idols was about Rs72 crore. On the information of the theft, the Mudabidri police have registered a case and started investigation.
During the investigation, Karnataka police have been tipped off by an informer that Ghanshyam Das alias Santosh Das son of Parmanand Das, resident of Bhubaneswar in Odisha, has been searching for buyer of idols and some idols were hidden in his house on July 15. On the information, Karnataka police raided the house of the suspect at Bhubaneswar and seized three archaeologically important idols worth about Rs19 crore and Rs2.05 lakh in cash.
The police arrested the father-in-law Digambar Mohanti and wife Deeptimahi Patnayak of the accused and produced them in the court. Accordingly, the Mangalore Police presented challan in the court against the accused on September 13, 2013.
Based on a tip off, accused Ghanshyam has been arrested from Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh and while interrogation, he confessed that he had stolen 15 ancient idols and gold from the Jain Museum temple Mudbidri in Mangalore about a month back. He said that he had sold seven stolen idols through Rajaji alias Subhabh Sancheti, resident of Durg district in Chhattisgarh and the remaining ones he had molten down.
Based on the confession of the accused, a team of Karnataka Police headed by its Commissioner reached Durg. The police arrested Rajaji alias Subhash Chancheti from his house and produced him in Durg court and then taken back on one-day transit remand. The Durg Police have extended full cooperation to the Karnataka Police in this complete process.
As it is an inter-State case and because of the religious and cultural recognition of the stolen idols, help of foreign police agencies and Interpol might be sought in the investigation. Therefore, looking to the seriousness and sensitivity of the case, the Chhattisgarh DGP on September 10, 2013 had suggested the Chhattisgarh Government and the DGP Karnataka to initiate CBI probe into the case.
On the suggestion of the Chhattisgarh Police and the State Government, the Karnataka Government on November 21, handed over the case to CBI for investigation.