Gold ornaments adorning the Durga idol of the temple at Bhukailash Rajbari in Kidderpore were stolen on Saturday night or early on Sunday. Police said the stolen jewellery was worth Rs 50,000.

The temple has neither a guard nor a CCTV camera.

The theft came to light when the priest opened the rear door of the temple around 5am. The police said the platform on which the idol stood was ransacked and the ornaments were missing.

Soon after, the priest, Swapan Chakraborty, noticed that the lock on the front door had been opened.

Among the ornaments stolen were a necklace, a waist chain, a nose ring and two ankle bells. Some silver weapons of the deity and a snake made of silver were also stolen.

Members of the Ghoshal family, the custodian of the temple, blamed the staff at the shrine for the theft.

The police questioned the priest and the three cleaners and sweepers for several hours. No one was arrested till late on Sunday.

"There had been two earlier attempts to steal ornaments from the temple. On both occasions the thieves were caught before they could steal anything," said Jaya Ghoshal, a member of the family.

The 287-year-old Rajbari is around 100m from Fancy Market. The plaque outside the temple says it was constructed 232 years ago by late Raja Jaynarayan Ghoshal.