Thai ‘monk’ flees with 600-year-old sandalwood beads garland of Kabir
2 Dec 2013 12:07 AM GMT
The Thai monk, who mentioned his name as Pele in the visitor book, had visited the mutt on Saturday with two other accomplices. Carrying a big bag he requested the mutt authorities to allow him stay inside the sanctum sanctorum of the mutt's main temple for few minutes for meditation. In the meantime his accomplices started distributing Thai currencies among the people dwelling in the mutt.
This move was sufficient to divert the attention of all when Pele opened a cupboard, in which the belongings of 15th century mystic poet and one of the saints of Bhakti movement including an earthen pot, charkha and sandalwood garland are displayed, and replaced the original garland with a duplicate one. Afterwards he came out and left the mutt with his accomplices. The incident came to light when the disciples of mahant of temple opened the sanctum sanctorum of main temple on Sunday morning for cleaning and noticed a rudraksha garland in the cupboard.
As the mutt's mahant Vivekdas Acharya was out of station, Devsharan Das reported the matter to police. During initial investigation of police it came to light that Pele had visited the mutt for the third time in past three years. He had made bid to purchase the belongings of Sant Kabir from the mutt authorities in past by offering huge money. On getting report the police swung in action and the foreigners' registration officer was also alerted to check the records of local intelligence unit to trace Pele. However, none of the efforts of police could yield any result till Sunday afternoon.
This move was sufficient to divert the attention of all when Pele opened a cupboard, in which the belongings of 15th century mystic poet and one of the saints of Bhakti movement including an earthen pot, charkha and sandalwood garland are displayed, and replaced the original garland with a duplicate one. Afterwards he came out and left the mutt with his accomplices. The incident came to light when the disciples of mahant of temple opened the sanctum sanctorum of main temple on Sunday morning for cleaning and noticed a rudraksha garland in the cupboard.
As the mutt's mahant Vivekdas Acharya was out of station, Devsharan Das reported the matter to police. During initial investigation of police it came to light that Pele had visited the mutt for the third time in past three years. He had made bid to purchase the belongings of Sant Kabir from the mutt authorities in past by offering huge money. On getting report the police swung in action and the foreigners' registration officer was also alerted to check the records of local intelligence unit to trace Pele. However, none of the efforts of police could yield any result till Sunday afternoon.
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