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Regular-article-logo Wednesday, 21 May 2025

IDOL-SNATCH AT JAGANNATH TEMPLE 

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FROM DEBABRATA MOHANTY Published 11.11.01, 12:00 AM
Puri, Nov. 11 :    Puri, Nov. 11:  Even gods are not safe anymore. Burglars broke into Sri Jagannath temple this morning and made off with two priceless idols from a shrine just behind the sanctum sanctorum of one of the most famous pilgrimage centres in the country. The temple administration said the thieves had also tried to enter the main shrine, where the idols of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra are kept on a ratna simhasan. Puri temple administrator Bhabani Shankar Panda said the burglars had picked the locks on one of the doors leading to the sanctum sanctorum. The missing idols of Madanamohan and Amavasya Narayana, both incarnations of Lord Vishnu, are made of an amalgam of silver and other precious metals, known as ashtadhatu. The idols were deities at the Baharadeuli temple in the 13th century complex. The pre-dawn heist is the second in less than a week in a temple in Orissa. Last Monday, the 11th century Lingaraj temple at Bhubaneswar was broken into and gold as well as silver wares valued at Rs 1 lakh were stolen. The thieves had also taken away the silver mask of Lingaraj, only to throw it in an unused well on the temple premises. The two-feet-high, 15-kg idol of Madanamohan, who represents Jagannath during the Chandan Yatra in summer, was found missing when temple servitors came to open the shrine at 5 am. The five-kg silver idol of Amavasya Narayana, said to be the deity of the new-moon day, was stolen after the burglars smashed the locks. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik said the CBI would be asked to probe the burglary. The crime branch will conduct a parallel probe. Three employees of the temple have been detained and 13 securitymen, including eight members of the Jagannath Temple Police, suspended for dereliction of duty. As soon as the burglary was discovered, the temple was closed to pilgrims, all rituals were stopped and roads leading to the temple town were sealed. The rituals were resumed after the servitors brought another idol of Madanamohan from a math. Pilgrims were allowed in after 12 noon.    
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