Bhubaneswar, Jan. 23: Thieves plundered the famous Kali temple in Satya Nagar in the wee hours of today. They broke the donation boxes (hundis) and escaped with an unspecified amount of cash.

Neither the temple authorities nor the police were certain about the cash in the donation box, as it had not been counted. This is the sixth temple theft in the Kharavela Nagar police station area in last two months. The police have registered a case and investigation has begun.

Police said the temple authorities informed them in the morning about the theft. Out of the three hundis in the temple, two were broken and found lying near the boundary wall. “The thieves took the two boxes to the back of the temple and broke them. Since the third one was bigger and difficult to remove from its place, it was left intact,” said a police officer.

According to the temple sources, as yesterday was a special day for the worship of the goddess, devotees had donated generously. The temple was closed at 9pm as usual and all the staff and the priests left for their home. Only two cleaners of the temple remained in the campus and were sleeping in a room within the premises.

“As the road in front of the temple normally remains busy till midnight, the incident might have occurred in the wee hours of Sunday,” said a temple staff. He added this was third such theft in the temple in the last one year.

In the morning, when the boys who clean the premises everyday opened the temple for morning prayers, they saw the temple donation box lying behind the temple. They informed the temple authorities who called the police. The Kharvela Nagar police rushed to the spot for investigation.

A senior police officer said that since temple thefts had become frequent, the officials of the shrine had been advised not to keep money in the donation box. “We hope that not much cash had been kept in the hundi,” the police officer said. Earlier on January 17, some goons had looted two donation boxes from a temple in the PHD colony in Satya Nagar. A case was registered at the Kharvela police station in this regard and investigations are still on.

Similarly on January 9, goons looted the donation box from the Giri Durga temple in Unit III and on January 5, thefts were committed at two other temples in Kharavela Nagar area.

Sources said, two months ago robbers had also looted cash from the same Kali temple in Satya Nagar and committed burglary in another temple near Master Canteen.

A police officer said this could be the work of drug addicts who might be targeting temples for easy money. The deputy commissioner of police (DCP), Himanshu Lal, said that patrolling in the city had been intensified in the wake of thefts.