Idols, items of worship fished out of Brahmaputra

Idols of gods and goddesses, lamps, conches, temple door latches were retrieved from the Brahmaputra river near Uzan Bazar-Umananda ferry ghat in Guwahati on Saturday while an iron statue was recovered on Sunday. Local police have launched an enquiry to ascertain if the items have been stolen from some temple.

Guwahati (Assam):As many as 42 items used in worship along with metal idols have been fished out from the Brahmaputra in Guwahati over the past two days, top police officials said.

Idols of gods and goddesses, lamps, conches, temple door latches were retrieved from the river near Uzan Bazar-Umananda ferry ghat on Saturday while an iron statue was recovered on Sunday.

Personnel of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been engaged for carrying out underwater searches, an official from Latasil police station said.

Guwahati Commissioner of Police Deepak Kumar told reporters that an enquiry was on to find out how the objects made its way to the Brahmaputra, and whether the articles were stolen from temples.

Reports of theft cases in temples were also being checked, he said.

Two of the items have already been identified as that of a temple, he said.

Director-General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, who visited the site on Sunday, said that he has called for investigations to find out how and from where the articles made its way to the river.

The discovery of the puja items was made accidentally by an employee of a tea stall, near the ferry ghat, when he was bathing in the river on Saturday morning.

The person, identified as Sanu Ali, said while bathing near the river bank, he received injuries on his feet, caused by sharp objects under the water.

On taking a dip, Ali found an idol of Lord Shiva and suspecting it to be a stolen item, he informed the police.

The police personnel asked him and two locals to conduct a search operation underwater.

The three men fished out idols of Kali, Shiva, Krishna, Brahma, Tara Devi, Buddha, Ganesh, Laxmi, Radha-Krishna.

Plaques with Devanagiri scripts, tridents, oil lamps, door latches and conches were also recovered from the river, a police officer said.

The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) personnel recovered items, including 29 idols, the officer added.

Ali said, a few days ago some people were seen throwing sacks into the river and they had told the tea stall employee that the bags contained useless things.

A person identified as Nirendra Kumar Seal of Chandan Nagar of Beltola area in the city claimed that one of the idols was stolen from a temple within his house premises on October 18 last.

A case had been filed about it in Dispur Police Station.