A Week after 15 antique idols made of gold and precious stones were stolen from the Jain shrines of Moodbidri near Mangalore in Karnataka,police in Bhubaneswar on Saturday claimed to have recovered some of those from the house of a state government peon. On July 6,a thief broke into Siddhanta Pratima Darshan Basadi,one of the holiest Jain shrines in Moodbidri,and fled with 15 of the 52 priceless Jain idols. The two CCTV cameras installed there showed a thief using a gas cutter to cut a part of the window to enter the shrine. The thief also smashed all the CCTV cameras. Bhubaneswar deputy commissioner of police Nitinjeet Singh said the police recovered 3 priceless Jain idols and 1.012 kg of gold bricks from the house of Digambar Mohanty in Sailashree Vihar area. Mohanty works as a peon in the housing and urban development department of the State government. The police also recovered 2.5 lakh in cash,7 ATM cards,several banks passbooks and chequebooks from him. The Mangalore police also zeroed in on Santosh Das who was reportedly involved in a similar temple heist in Karnataka,but fled. We found that he was in touch with people from West Bengal,Karnataka,Andhra Pradesh,Maharashtra and Nepal. We believe he was in touch with a gang of antique item smugglers, said Singh. However,Das had fled his in-laws place two days ago. The DCP said Das might have melted some of the the gold idols and made bricks out of it. Singh added,The Mangalore police are interrogating the wife and father-in-law of the accused. If necessary,they may be taken into custody.
