Jewellery, cash looted from Tara Tarini temple

Berhampur: Miscreants decamped with jewellery and cash from the donation box (hundi) of the 17th century Tara Tarini temple on Tuesday night. The matter came to light after the priests spotted the temple door open on Wednesday morning. Most of the households in southern Odisha have Mother Tara Tarini as their presiding deity.

“The stolen jewelleries include two ‘Mukhas’ and one ‘Chatri’ or ceremonial umbrella made of silver and three ‘Kirati’ of the deity made of roll gold. They also emptied the donation box,” said the temple priest.

Absence of CCTV cameras on the premises will make it hard for the police to trace the culprits. “The administration should help us in installing CCTV cameras so that such incidents do not recur,” he said.

The main door of Tara Tarini temple was closed at about 9.30 pm after Bada Singhara and rituals on Tuesday. There were two temple staffers on the temple premises atop the hill to guard the abode. But they were not aware of the burglary. The burglary was noticed after the priest came to the temple to conduct the morning puja, said Pramod Kumar Panda, member of Tara Tarini Temple Trust Board.

The miscreants broke two locks to enter the ‘Garbhagruha’ of the temple, said Pramod.

In a similar incident, two brass heads, known as ‘Chalanti Pratima’ or living image placed between Goddesses Tara and Tarini were stolen in 1990, he said.

The Trust Board has already prepared a blueprint of the security and sanitation of the temple complex. But it is yet to be implemented as it requires approval of the State government.

One must climb 999 stairs to get access to the temple’s sanctum sanctorum.

Purushottampur police launched a manhunt to nab the miscreants.

Meanwhile, Opposition leader Naveen Patnaik criticised the BJP government for security lapses in Tara Tarini temple. He has formed a fact-finding committee of the BJD and asked the committee to visit the temple and gather facts about lapses.