All seven kalasams (brass pots) atop the four towers of Manjal Neer Kootha Ayyanar temple on the southern bank of Kollidam river at Vilangudi village near Thiruvaiyaru in Tamil Nadu were burgled on Wednesday.
The theft came to light when temple priest S Yogeswaran reached the temple in the morning to perform pooja and found the seven kalasams missing. Each kalasam of about 0.75 ft in height was placed on the towers of Madurai Veeran, Nondi Muthukaruppu, Nonjanswami and Karuppaswami.
A complaint has been lodged at the Thiruvaiyaru Police by temple executive officer Brihandevi. The forensic department has collected fingerprints and a case has been registered. However, the police said that as the temple is small it lacks safety measures and the four towers surrounding the temple are without boundary walls.
The temple is under the control of the HR&CE Department.
Multiple cases of temple theft being reported
Temple theft and robbery have become a regular occurrence across the country. In the month of July, a team of the Tamil Nadu Idol Wing CID seized four antique metal idols of Hindu gods and goddesses from a house in Puducherry. It is suspected that the idols were stolen from a temple in Tamil Nadu’s Ariyalur.
In yet another case from July, the Delhi Police arrested two men who had broken into a temple in Outer Delhi’s Rajpark area and stole nine brass vessels. The weight of all the vessels stolen is estimated to be around 65-70kgs.
As per reports, as many as four temples have been looted in a month in Jharkhand’s Jamshedpur. From temple kalasam to looting donation boxes, the cases of temple theft are on a rise.
The Sri Veerabhadraswamy Temple located on the outskirts of Bengaluru, Karnataka was burgled on Wednesday and cash from the donation box looted, while the security guard was asleep in the security room. Reportedly, the burglars also took away ₹54,000 along with the DVR and the monitor from the temple office.
