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BHUBANESWAR: Nine years after stealing expensive ornaments from a temple in Gopinathpur on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar in Odisha, the thief returned the booty on Monday and expressed regret for his actions in two anonymous apology notes written in English.
The thief confessed to have committed the crime in May 2014 but was repenting every minute.
He also left Rs 301 in the bag containing the silver ornaments, giving a breakup of Rs 201 as dakshina (donation) and Rs 100 as penalty (token of repentance) for his crime.
“I had taken the ornaments when a yajna was being performed at the temple. I faced a lot of problems in life during the nine years. Hence, I decided to surrender before the Gods and return the ornaments. I am not mentioning my name, address or village,” the note read.
The bag of ornaments valued around Rs 4 lakh was placed outside a house adjacent to the Gopinath temple from where the unknown thief had stolen headgear, earrings, bracelets and a flute, belonging to God Krishna and Goddess Radha.
The house owner, who was identified as Debesh Kumar Mohanty, had conducted the yajna at the temple.
Since Mohanty is one of the prominent people of Gopinathpur, the thief left the bag outside his house along with the regret note.
“We had lodged a complaint at the Lingaraj police station immediately after the theft in May 2014. The police officials had visited our temple and conducted an investigation. The police had questioned our locals as well as some priests, who had come from a nearby village to perform the yajna. But there was no trace of the ornaments, nor the thief,” Sukanta Mohanty, a Gopinathpur resident said.
Temple priest Kailash Panda described the recovery of the stolen ornaments as a miracle.
“We had given up all hopes of recovering the ornaments after the police failed to catch the thief all those years. With much difficulty, we purchased new ornaments for the deities. The deities have punished the thief, who returned the stolen ornaments himself,” Panda said.
The locals have informed the police.
When the incident occurred, the area used to come under Lingaraj police limits.
Now, it comes under Dhauli police area.
The thief confessed to have committed the crime in May 2014 but was repenting every minute.
He also left Rs 301 in the bag containing the silver ornaments, giving a breakup of Rs 201 as dakshina (donation) and Rs 100 as penalty (token of repentance) for his crime.
“I had taken the ornaments when a yajna was being performed at the temple. I faced a lot of problems in life during the nine years. Hence, I decided to surrender before the Gods and return the ornaments. I am not mentioning my name, address or village,” the note read.
The bag of ornaments valued around Rs 4 lakh was placed outside a house adjacent to the Gopinath temple from where the unknown thief had stolen headgear, earrings, bracelets and a flute, belonging to God Krishna and Goddess Radha.
The house owner, who was identified as Debesh Kumar Mohanty, had conducted the yajna at the temple.
Since Mohanty is one of the prominent people of Gopinathpur, the thief left the bag outside his house along with the regret note.
“We had lodged a complaint at the Lingaraj police station immediately after the theft in May 2014. The police officials had visited our temple and conducted an investigation. The police had questioned our locals as well as some priests, who had come from a nearby village to perform the yajna. But there was no trace of the ornaments, nor the thief,” Sukanta Mohanty, a Gopinathpur resident said.
Temple priest Kailash Panda described the recovery of the stolen ornaments as a miracle.
“We had given up all hopes of recovering the ornaments after the police failed to catch the thief all those years. With much difficulty, we purchased new ornaments for the deities. The deities have punished the thief, who returned the stolen ornaments himself,” Panda said.
The locals have informed the police.
When the incident occurred, the area used to come under Lingaraj police limits.
Now, it comes under Dhauli police area.
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