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Four persons have been arrested over the theft of the crown of goddess Kali at the Jeshoreshwari Temple in Shyamnagar, Satkhira in Bangladesh. The gold-plated silver crown, which was gifted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the temple in March 2021, was stolen from the temple on Thursday afternoon.
Satkhira district police have announced a reward for information regarding the theft. Police said that 4 suspects have been arrested in connection with the case. The identities of the arrested persons are yet to be disclosed.
However, the culprit has not been identified yet. The incident was caught in CCTV cameras, which show that a youth of around 24-25 years age stole the crown from the temple. The man entered the temple casually, removed the crown from the Maa Kali idol, hid it in his T-shirt, and then walked away. The entire theft was done in just 10-12 seconds, indicating that he had planned the act in advance and was aware of the layout of the temple premises.
As per reports, after the day’s worship rituals, priest Dilip Kumar Banerjee handed over the keys to the temple’s priestess, Rekha Rani Sarkar, and went home. Rekha Sarkar and several devotees were present in the temple courtyard at that time. But after some time, they discovered that the crown was missing.
Earlier in the day, the temple’s priest Jyoti Prakash Chattopadhyay filed a case over the theft at Shyamnagar police station. Satkhira Superintendent of Police has directed the District Detective Branch (DB) to investigate the case.
Satkhira District Police on Friday posted the CCTV footage on their Facebook profile and requested the help of people in identifying the culprit. They added that people providing such information will be suitably rewarded.
Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuiyan, the youth and sports advisor to the interim government, visited the Jeshoreshwari Temple today and instructed authorities to arrest the thief and recover the crown as soon as possible.
The Indian High Commission in Dhaka and the Ministry of External Affairs of the Indian govt have expressed deep concern over the theft and urged the Bangladesh authorities to recover the crown.
Jeshoreshwari Temple in Shyamnagar is one of the 51 Shakti Peeths in Hinduism. Out of them, 7 are located in Bangladesh. PM Modi had personally placed the crown on the deity’s head at Jeshoreshwari Temple in Satkhira on 21 March 2021.
Notably, after the theft of the crown, no worship has taken place at the temple. Frustration among people of the Hindu community in the area is increasing due to non-recovery of the crown.