CANACONA: Two temples, situated on a hill on the National Highway 17, at Gulem-Karmalghat section at Canacona, were burgled and vandalised by some unknown miscreants sometime on Wednesday night.

According to the Canacona police, the old Bhumipurush temple at Gulem and the more recently built Ganapati temple on the top of Karmalghat section, were robbed of the valuables items there, including samai, bells, pooja articles. The cash from the donation boxes
was also taken.

Mr Krishna Gaonkar, the pujari of the Bhumipurush Devsthana in Gulem, speaking to ‘The Navhind Times’ said that the incident took place between 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. on March 25. He said 25 bells, 11 samai, besides material used for aarti and donated cash has been taken away.

In the second incident, the newly built Ganapati temple on the top of Karmalghat section was also robbed, most probably around the same time, and pooja articles, including samai, bells were taken away. The donation box too was robbed of its contents. According to Mr Prabhod Chiplunkar, the pujari of the temple, the idols of Lord Ganapati, made of rock, wood and other material were not touched, but the cement foundation of a big trident installed near the temple has been broken into pieces.

In the third incident of robbery at Karmalghat, the Canacona police registered a case against unidentified person for committing the theft of temple articles, worth around Rs 8350, belonging to a roadside gumti of Lord Ganesh.

According to the complainant, Mr Sanjay Subhash Desai, two brass bells, 3 brass lamps, 1 copper pot and the donation box with cash in it were robbed by the miscreants, sometime between 7 p.m. on Wednesday evening and 7 a.m. on Thursday morning.

The police have registered an offence under section 379 IPC and investigations are in progress by ASI, Mr Anand Bhandari under the supervision of PI,
Mr Suraj Halarnkar.