Silver articles worth Rs 5 lakh stolen from Satara temple

PUNE: Unidentified persons broke into the famous Kaleshwari temple on Mandhardev hill in Satara district, around 150 kms from Pune, and allegedly stole 11 kg of silver ornaments, including the crown, and the 'paduka', together worth Rs 5.12 lakh. The incident took place early on Tuesday.
The CCTV cameras in the temple have recorded the images of the two suspects.
The incident came to light around 3.30 am on Tuesday, when the security guard of the temple, Dada Kalambe, heard the bell in the temple and went to check who had hit the bell. "Kalambe saw five devotees offering prayers from outside the temple," said inspector Amrut Deshmukh of the Wai police station.
Deshmukh said that Kalambe saw that the temple's front door was open and asked the devotees about it. The devotees told him that the door had been open when they arrived at the temple. "Kalambe became suspicious and went inside the temple. When he entered the sanctum sanctorum, he found that the silver 'paduka' and crown and other silver ornaments were missing," Deshmukh said.
Kalambe immediately informed the trustee of the temple, Milind Oak, about the incident, who in turn informed the police. Deshmukh, who rushed to the spot, later informed the superintendent of the Satara police M K Prasanna about the incident. Prassanna visited the spot early in the morning.
Deshmukh said that according to the CCTV footage, the thieves entered the temple around 2.45 am. "They left the temple within 15 minutes," he said. He added that the dog squad was summoned and the dog traced the trail of the suspects about 2 kms towards Wai. "We have sent out five teams to trace them," he said.