After offering prayers, robbers loot ₹25L silver artefact

NEW DELHI: In a bizarre display of devotion, two men stole a silver artefact worth around Rs 25 lakh from a ‘shivling’ at a temple in east Delhi’s Preet Vihar on Monday, after one of them briefly stopped to offer prayers, police said.

The 27-second CCTV footage of the incident, which has surfaced online, shows the two masked men entering the temple around 3 am after climbing the boundary wall and breaking the gate locks.

While one of the accused drags a chair, the other is seen offering prayers before decamping with the silver artefact. One them also climbs onto a chair to tamper with the CCTV camera. The stolen artefact weighed around 4 kgs, the police said.

The two men then fled the spot. The theft came to light when the temple priest arrived in the morning and noticed the missing silver artefact, following which a PCR call was received around 6 am.

“A case under sections 305 (theft in a dwelling house or place of worship) and 331 (punishment for house-trespass or house-breaking) has been registered in Preet Vihar police station and the crime team has inspected the spot,” a senior police officer said.

Police are intensively investigating the case, scanning CCTV footage from the temple and surrounding areas to identify the accused and gather crucial evidence.