This story is from January 8, 2016

Thieves target two temples in Junagadh

Thieves targeted the famous Vagheshwari Mata temple at Bhavnagar in Junagadh on Wednesday night and decamped with silver ornaments and cash.
Thieves target two temples in Junagadh
Rajkot: Thieves targeted the famous Vagheshwari Mata temple at Bhavnagar in Junagadh on Wednesday night and decamped with silver ornaments and cash.
This was the second time that the 250-year-old temple was targeted in last four months. On October 22 last year, thieves had stolen over 20 items including a golden throne, silver-plated tiger face and antique crown, necklaces, bangles and anklets made of gold and diamond.
All the valuables were over 100 years old and are valued at nearly Rs 22 lakh. However, local police are yet to detect this theft.
The temple's trustee Mukesh Rajpara told police on Thursday that the thieves entered by breaking the iron grills at the Upla Vagheshwari temple in the dead of night. They also stole a donation box of the Gayatri temple located adjacent to this temple at Bhavnath taleti (foothill), he said.
While value of the silver totals to Rs 3,000, it is unknown how much cash was there in the two donation boxes. The boxes were recovered from the forest area nearby in Girnar on Thursday morning.
"The thieves tried to sneak inside by breaking the door of Nichla Vagheshwari temple where jewellery worth over Rs 22 lakh was stolen earlier. However, they could not enter it and targeted Upla Vagheshwari," Rajpara said in his complaint.
"We accessed CCTV footage from Nichla Vagheshwari temple on Thursday and are hopeful that the thieves will soon be identified. Unlike CCTV footage of the October 22 theft, the visuals are much clearer this time. We strongly suspect that the same gang was involved in the theft of antique jewellery earlier," said Girubha Vaghela, investigation officer, Bhavnath police station. In 2015, four temples in Rajkot district were targeted by thieves. While cash and ornaments worth Rs 1.5 lakh were stolen from Ashapura temple in Gondal, Rs 70,000 theft was reported from Ramapir temple at Ardoi village near Kotda-Sangani. Both thefts are still undetected.
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