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| .. Sri Oppiliappan Temple, Tamil Nadu temple Advisor |
In the first week of April 2016, an Executive Officer of the Vadapalani Subramaniya swamy temple in Chennai city, TN was arrested by the state government's CB-CID officers for the theft of gold jewels and gemstones including valuable diamonds to be worn by the deities (utchavers) during the temple festivals at the Uppiliappan temple, a Vaishnavite shrine at Tirunageswaram near Kumbakonam, Thanjavur district.
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| Sri Oppiliappan Temple, Tamil NaduTemple Advisor |
A case had been registered by the CB-CID on a complaint lodged by the Executive Officer of the temple who mentioned that gold jewels and valuable precious stones were tampered with and replaced by fake ones during the tenure of the Executive officer. As it was a serious crime committed on the temple premises, involving jewels normally worn by the procession deities (Utchavars) during the festival times, the crime branch stepped in quickly to get to the bottom of the case. Further, additional pressure was given by a detailed enquiry conducted by the Joint Commissioner of the Hindu a Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department and it it helped speed up the investigation. One person having been already arrested, the enquiry led to the arrest of the Executive officer who was with a Chennai temple on transfer. The local police had swung into action to retrieve the stolen temple jewels based on the information given by the accused.
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| Uppiliappan with Markandeya and Bhudevi at Thiruvinnagarpinterest.es |
The culprits used a simple modus operandi before the start of a major temple festival. Under the pretext of melting the old gold jewels to make a gold shield for the god, they initiated the process of melting the gold and later replaced the old jewels with fake ones. The offenders' assumption was that, during the hectic festival times, no officials would notice the fake ones because their preoccupation would be on the successful conduct of the temple festivals and crowd control. This theft was well planned and executed with meticulous care.
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| Hindu temple robbery. UdaipurTimes.com |
This illegal operation, though done on a low key level, it raised the suspicion of some dedicated and duty-bound officials. Based on their observation, the HR & CE Department ordered a probe by a Joint Commissioner. As the investigation intensified the officials tracked down,they were surprised that the brainchild of this daring temple robbery was the Executive officer. Though he was arrested, the police were trying to flush out the other suspects who were either at large or had reminded unexposed.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/hr-ce-official-arrested-for-theft-of-precious-temple-jewels/article8449069.ece
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