22/08/2024
Khanna Police arrests 04 members of Interstate gang of thieves who committed theft and desecration at Shivpuri Temple, Khanna within 05 days.
Khanna, August 22 ( Prof. Avtar Singh) :-Under the leadership of Ms. Ashwini Gotyal, IPS, Senior Superintendent of Police, Khanna and under supervision of Sh. Saurav Jindal, PPS, Superintendent of Police (Investigation) Khanna, a special campaign has been launched to nab the bad elements. Under this campaign Sh. Tarlochan Singh PPS, DySP Samrala, DySP, Khanna, Inspector Amandeep Singh, Incharge CIA Staff, Khanna, SHO City Khanna, SHO Samrala, Incharge Anti narcotic Cell-1, Khanna, In-charge Anti narcotic Cell-2, In-charge Technical Cell, Khanna along with Police parties arrested 04 members of a interstate gang (who are habitual thieves), who committed theft and desecration at Shiv Temple, Shivpuri Mohalla, Khanna and recovered 3 kg 630 gms silver from their possession.
On 15.08.2024,Sh. Subodh Mittal S/o Kulbhushan Rai Gupta R/o house no. 226 Shivpuri Mohalla, Khanna gave his statement that on 15.08.2024 at around 4:30 am, unknown accused persons entered the Shivpuri temple through window panes on roof of temple and stole various gold and silver ornaments including silver gagar (which was placed above Shivling Maharaj), silver garland around Shivling Maharaj, silver flute of Krishna Maharaj, silver crowns and gold ornaments of all the idols in the Temple and these accused also desecrated Shivling Maharaj. Acting swiftly on this matter, FIR No. 124 date 15.08.2024 U/s 331(4), 305, 299 BNS PS City Khanna was registered immediately and investigation of the case was carried out.
Special teams were formed to trace the said case and investigation of the case was carried out by scientific-technical means and using Human intelligence. CCTV Footages of the unknown suspects were developed from backward and forward links obtained from CCTV cameras regarding the said incident. The photographs of suspects were captured and shared in different groups through social media. During the investigation of the case, inputs were received that an interstate gang of thieves carry out thefts in temples and religious places. According to the input received during the investigation of the case, special teams of Khanna Police conducted raids in different districts of Punjab and other states. During the raids, with the help of Uttarakhand Police, the accused Resham Singh @ Rinku S/o Thakur Singh R/o Sindhi Jhala, Police Station Sitarganj, District Udham Singh Nagar (Uttrakhand) was arrested from Delhi. Apart from this, with the help of Chandigarh Police, the accused Ravi Kumar S/o Rampal R/o Mahindpur, Police Station Nangal, District Ropar was arrested from Chandigarh and accused Honey S/o Baliram R/o Mahindpur, Police Station Nangal, District Ropar was arrested from Ropar. Accused Mohit S/o Surinder Singh R/o Utawal, Police Station Khair, District Aligarh (UP), an associate of this gang is yet to be arrested. These arrested persons have confessed to the incident of theft and desecration at Shivpuri Temple, Khanna on 15.08.2024. There are various cases registered against these persons in different states for stealing from religious places.
During investigation of the case, it has also come to light that this gang of thieves used to sell the stolen silver and gold ornaments to a Jeweler Rajeev Kumar @ Soni S/o Vijay Kumar Verma R/o Kumarapuram, Police Station Para, District Lucknow (UP). Based on this information said Jeweler was nominated as accused in this case and he was arrested from Lucknow (UP) and the offence U/s 317 (2) BNS has been added in the said case. The accused are being interrogated in-depth, from which more theft incidents are likely to be revealed.
From the investigation conducted so far in the this case, it has come to light that this gang of thieves has committed theft at many religious places in different states and they used to sell stolen gold/silver ornaments to jeweler of Lucknow (UP).