BHUBANESWAR: Nine years after stealing expensive ornaments from a temple in Gopinathpur on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar in Odisha, the thief returned the loot on Monday and expressed regret for his actions in two anonymous apology notes written in English.
The thief confessed to the crime in May 2014, but repented every minute.
He also left Rs 301 in the bag containing the silver ornaments, giving a break of Rs 201 as a dakshina (donation) and Rs 100 as a penalty (sign of repentance) for his crime.
“I had taken the ornaments when a yajna was being performed at the temple. I have faced many problems in life during the nine years. So, I decided to surrender before the gods and return the ornaments. I am not mentioning my name, address or village,” the statement read.
The bag of ornaments worth around Rs 4 lakh was placed outside a house adjacent to the Gopinath temple from where the unknown thief had stolen headdresses, earrings, bangles and a flute, belonging to god Krishna and goddess Radha.
The owner of the house, identified as Debesh Kumar Mohanty, had conducted the yajna at the temple.
As Mohanty is one of the prominent people of Gopinathpur, the thief left the bag outside the house along with the regret message.
“We had filed a complaint with the Lingaraj Police Station soon after the theft in May 2014. The police officers had visited our temple and conducted an investigation. The police had questioned our locals and some priests who had come from a nearby village to perform the yajna. But there was no trace of the ornaments, nor of the thief,” said Gopinathpur resident Sukanta Mohanty.
Temple priest Kailash Panda described the recovery of the stolen ornaments as a miracle.
“We had lost all hope of recovering the ornaments after the police failed to catch the thief all those years. With great difficulty we bought new ornaments for the deities. The deities punished the thief, who returned the stolen ornaments himself,” Panda said.
The locals informed the police.
When the incident occurred, the area was within the Lingaraj police limits.
He now falls under the Dhauli Police Area.
The thief confessed to the crime in May 2014, but repented every minute.
He also left Rs 301 in the bag containing the silver ornaments, giving a break of Rs 201 as a dakshina (donation) and Rs 100 as a penalty (sign of repentance) for his crime.
“I had taken the ornaments when a yajna was being performed at the temple. I have faced many problems in life during the nine years. So, I decided to surrender before the gods and return the ornaments. I am not mentioning my name, address or village,” the statement read.
The bag of ornaments worth around Rs 4 lakh was placed outside a house adjacent to the Gopinath temple from where the unknown thief had stolen headdresses, earrings, bangles and a flute, belonging to god Krishna and goddess Radha.
The owner of the house, identified as Debesh Kumar Mohanty, had conducted the yajna at the temple.
As Mohanty is one of the prominent people of Gopinathpur, the thief left the bag outside the house along with the regret message.
“We had filed a complaint with the Lingaraj Police Station soon after the theft in May 2014. The police officers had visited our temple and conducted an investigation. The police had questioned our locals and some priests who had come from a nearby village to perform the yajna. But there was no trace of the ornaments, nor of the thief,” said Gopinathpur resident Sukanta Mohanty.
Temple priest Kailash Panda described the recovery of the stolen ornaments as a miracle.
“We had lost all hope of recovering the ornaments after the police failed to catch the thief all those years. With great difficulty we bought new ornaments for the deities. The deities punished the thief, who returned the stolen ornaments himself,” Panda said.
The locals informed the police.
When the incident occurred, the area was within the Lingaraj police limits.
He now falls under the Dhauli Police Area.
