Punjab police solve theft at Khanna’s Shivpuri Temple within a week; four held with 3.6kg stolen silver

Chandigarh/Khanna, August 22, 2024: In a major breakthrough amidst the ongoing campaign to make Punjab a safe and secure state as per directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Khanna Police has solved the sensational Shiv Mandir theft case in less than a week by busting an interstate theft gang— targeting Religious places including Mandir and Gurudwaras— with the arrest of its four members, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Thursday. 

The operation was accomplished with the cooperation from Chandigarh Police, Batala Police, Udham Singh Nagar Police, Uttrakhand and Lucknow Police.

Those arrested have been identified as Resham Singh alias Rinku of Sindhi Jhala, District Udham Singh Nagar in Uttrakhand; Ravi Kumar of Mahindpur in Ropar; Honey of Mahindpur in Ropar; and Rajeev Kumar alias Soni of Kumarapuram in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (UP).

As per the information, on August 15, at around 4:30 am, unknown accused persons entered the Shivpuri Temple through window panes on roof of temple and stole various gold and silver ornaments including silver gagar (which was placed above Shivling Maharaj), silver garland around Shivling Maharaj, silver flute of Krishna Maharaj, silver crowns and gold ornaments of all the idols in the Temple, besides, desecrating the Shivling Maharaj.

DGP Gaurav Yadav said that Police teams from Khanna have successfully arrested four accused persons involved in this case and recovered the 3.63kg silver, which was stolen from the Temple, from their possession. 

He said that preliminary investigations have revealed that the Gang was planning robberies in temples of Tamil Nadu and Telangana, which have been thwarted. Further investigations are on and more arrests are expected, he added. 

Sharing operation details, SSP Khanna Ashwini Gotyal, while addressing the press conference said that acting swiftly, special teams were formed under the supervision of SP Investigation Saurav Jindal to trace the case and investigation of the case was carried out by scientific-technical means and using Human intelligence.
    
She said that during the investigation of the case, inputs were received that an interstate gang of thieves carry out thefts in temples and other religious places. Acting swiftly on the inputs, special teams of Khanna Police conducted raids in different districts of Punjab and other states and with the help of Uttarakhand Police, managed to trace and arrest the first accused identified as Resham Singh alias Rinku from Delhi,” she said.
    
The SSP said that apart from this, with the help of Chandigarh Police, the accused Ravi Kumar was arrested from Chandigarh and accused Honey was arrested from Ropar. She said that the police have identified one more accused Mohit of Utawal in Aligarh of UP, an associate of this gang, who is yet to be arrested. 

During investigation of the case, it has also come to light that this gang of thieves used to sell the stolen silver and gold ornaments to a Jeweller Rajeev Kumar alias Soni, who was immediately nominated as accused in this case and the latter was arrested from Lucknow (UP) and the stolen jewellery was recovered from his possession, she said, while adding that the accused is being interrogated in-depth, from which more theft incidents are likely to be revealed. Notably, the jeweller has already been facing 12 criminal cases of theft.

SSP Gotyal said that from the investigation conducted so far in the this case, it has come to light that this gang of thieves has committed theft at many religious places in different states and there are various cases registered against these persons in different states for stealing from religious places.

A case FIR No. 124 dated 15.08.2024 had been registered under sections 331(4), 305 and 299 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at Police Station Khanna City, while, the offence under section 317 (2) of the BNS has been added in this case after the arrest of Jeweller.