Jajpur: Jajpur police has arrested four persons involved in the theft of idols from different temples in the district.
The police recovered 31 stolen idols from the possession of the thieves.
The accused persons have been identified as Arvind Kumar Singh (43), Baber alias Javed (40), Bijaya Shukla alias Pandit (51) and Sashidhar Nayak (49). Three of them are from Uttar Pradesh. Naik is a local informer from Balasore.
Four idols were stolen from the Krushnachandrapur temple under Jenapur police limits on 20/21.02.2023 night. As many as 19 idols were stolen from the Raghunath Jew temple of Jajpur town on February 20. Besides, several idols were stolen from the Siddha Baladevjew temple in Dharmashala area of the district on the intervening night of November 11 and 12 in 2022.
A team was formed by Jajpur Police to detect the case and on getting reliable information, a raid was conducted. Four persons were nabbed and 31 idols were recovered from their possession with a pistol, informed Jajpur SP Vinit Agrawal.
All the idols of Krushnachandrapur temple and Raghunath Jjew temple have been recovered and their involvement in Dharmasala case was established.
It is suspected that they are involved in number of idol theft cases in other district also. Their involvements in other district are being verified. The investigation is underway to nab the other accused, the police said.