Hyderabad, June 23: A significant theft occurred at the Mahakali Temple, located within the renowned Jnana Saraswati Temple complex in Basar, Nirmal district, Telangana. Officials reported the incident on Tuesday.
Late Monday night, two unidentified individuals broke into the temple, stealing a silver crown and the donation box, known as ‘hundi.’ They extracted cash from the hundi and discarded the empty box near the temple. The theft was discovered on Tuesday morning when the priest arrived for worship.
Temple officials alerted the police, and senior officers promptly arrived at the scene to initiate an investigation. CCTV footage captured the two masked intruders entering the temple premises. As part of the investigation, a clue team and a dog squad have been deployed. According to temple officials, the stolen silver crown weighs approximately 1.5 kilograms.
Following the incident, temple authorities postponed the counting of donations made by devotees. District Superintendent of Police Janaki Sharmila, along with MLA Rama Rao from Mudhol and other officials, visited the temple.
The Jnana Saraswati Temple is one of the prominent temples in Telangana. Situated on the banks of the sacred Godavari River, it is revered as the ‘Southern Ganges’ and boasts a glorious history spanning thousands of years.
According to mythology, after the Kurukshetra war, sage Vyasa settled in Basar by the banks of the Godavari. During his stay, he carved and consecrated the idols of the goddesses Jnana, Saraswati, Mahalaxmi, and Mahakali. Since then, Basar has become a sacred site known for the ‘Trimata’ (three goddesses) temple.
In April, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy laid the foundation for expansion and development projects at the temple, estimated to cost ₹225 crores.
Meanwhile, another theft occurred at a temple in Nandyal district of Andhra Pradesh, where the hundi from the Sri Satyanarayana Swamy Temple in Koyalakuntla was stolen. According to the police, a masked individual entered the temple around midnight and fled with the hundi. CCTV cameras installed in the temple captured the theft.
The police have registered a case regarding the theft and have commenced an investigation to identify the suspect.
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