Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (SP)

Puttur, Nov 10: Thieves entered the main shrine of Lord Laxmi Venkataramana Math at Polya in the outskirts of the city late night on Thursday November 8 and took away an invaluable idol of the lord, silver ornaments, armour and other things. The theft came to light on Friday morning.

Chief priest of the Math, Satyanarayana Bhat, noticed that the door of the sanctum sanctorum was wide open and theft had taken place, during his visit to the math for morning puja on Friday. The thieves apparently entered the math building by crossing over from a building behind. They broke open the door of the shrine and gained entry inside.

An idol of Lord Ganapati, a small idol of Lord Laxmi Venkataramana, idols of Bhoodevi and Sridevi, three silver armours of Venkataramana idol, two other idols of Lord Ganapathi, silver aureole and several other items were stolen. The complaint states that about five kilograms of silver items were stolen.

The thieves, who picked invaluable ancient idols for theft, brought four other idols out of the sanctum sanctorum and left them in the courtyard of the math.

On the basis of a complaint made by president of the math, Umashankar Yadurkula, deputy superintendent of police, Srinivas, inspector, Thimmappa Naik, sub-inspector, Ajey Kumar and others including fingerprint experts and sniffer dogs visited the spot. The sniffer dog led the people till the nearby Anganwadi centre from where wheek marks of a two-wheeler were found.

The CCTV camera installed inside the math had developed snags a few days back and hence was sent for repairs. Theft happened during the period the CCTV camera was not present.