Lord Raghunath of Kullu. (Photo by Author)
Dharamsala, December 10, 2014: With no clues of thieves even after 36 hours of the theft of priceless and revered (400 years old ) idol of Lord Raghunath from Kullu Temple of Himachal, the state police alerted Interpol too. King Jagat Singh of Kullu brought the idol of Lord Rama in 1651 from Ayodhya to establish this gold idol here as chief deity.
The famous Kullu Dasehra is centered around Lord Raghunath, who leads the procession of 300 other deities brought in from the other areas of the state during international Kullu Dushehra. While the market value of the stolen precious metals has been assessed as Rs 24 lakh, the antique value in the international market is said to be in crores of rupees. Other Idols stolen along with are Lord Ganesh idol (silver), Hanuman idol (alloy), Shaligram and Narsingh Devta idols (stone).
Earlier in January this year, gold and silver ornaments besides coins worth Rs 24 lakh were stolen from the temple after thieves gained access through the roof. The idols were left untouched then. This time, too, the thieves entered the temple through the roof.
In spite of the earlier theft, the temple lacked security staff or CCTVs in the sanctum. The famous Kullu Dasehra is centred around Lord Raghunath, the main deity who leads the procession of 300 deities brought in from the area for the festivities.
The theft reportedly took place on the night of December 8 and 9 at the stone and wood temple built in hill architecture.
A case has been registered and an alert sounded in the area. The inter-state borders have been sealed.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday the Chief minister of Himachal Vir Bhadra Singh have also announced a reward of Rs10 lakh in Himachal assembly at Dharamsala, for anyone giving any clue about the theft that could led to recovery of the idol and other stolen articles.
The police, which has set-up a six member Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Nihal Chand, Additional SP Kullu, have launched a major manhunt to nab the thieves and other persons involved in the theft.
Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Sanjay Kundu, on phone that the Police is working on some different leads including monitoring of telephone details of some suspects. “We are looking into the earlier case also and it could also provide them vital clues “, said Sanjay.
Maheshwar Singh, sitting MLA (Ind) and Chief priest of Lord Raghunath temple, had claimed that the burglars have adopted the same modus operandi as they did in January this year.
There are around 26,500 places of worship, including 5,000 temples, in 20,118 villages of Himachal. Police records reveal precious items such as valuable idols and jewellery valuing Rs 1.12 crore have been stolen from temples in the state from January 1, 2013 to July 15, 2014. A total of 102 cases of temple thefts were registered in the same period.
Some of the major thefts in the past few years include one at Bondra Devta Temple in Rohru and at Bhalei Mata Temple in Chamba.
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