Kota: Three members of a Madhya Pradesh-based criminal gang, including its chief, have been arrested for allegedly looting a temple and killing a priest in Rajasthan's Bundi district last month, police said on Sunday. They were nabbed while they were on their way to loot another temple in Bhilwara.
On the intervening night of September 18 and 19, seven people entered the Raktadantika temple in Satur village and looted gold and silver ornaments as well as the 'chatra' on the goddess' idol. During the incident, they assaulted two priests and a villager. Priest Raju Prajapati succumbed to injures at the Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital in Jaipur, triggering protests by locals.
The kingpin of the notorious Aman Baccha gang of Madhya Pradesh -- Aman Baccha -- and two of his aides have been arrested in the case, which was registered at the Hindoli police station, police said. Based on inputs from informers, they were apprehended from Bijoliya area on Saturday while they were heading to Bhilwara to loot another a temple, they said.
Bundi Superintendent of Police (SP) Jai Yadav had formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the matter and had also announced a reward of Rs 25,000 on information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators. During the probe, police teams had examined footage from around 200 CCTV cameras installed in different areas, including on roads and at a toll plaza. But this did not yield any result.
"The gang's members were not carrying mobile-phones and they avoided CCTV cameras. Therefore, technical and cyber investigations did not yield any results. Police took to conventional policing, collecting inputs from informers. The verification of an input on the gang of Pipliyahadi village in Madhya Pradesh's Nimach district helped trace the accused," Yadav said. The SP said that police teams kept a watch on the gang members' movement and the arrests were made.
Baccha is already wanted in several cases in Sirohi and Rajgarh in Madhya Pradesh. The other two arrested are Pradeep and Bharat, Yadav said and added that four others are still at large. The SP said that the three accused were sent to jail on Saturday. Devotees of the Raktadantika temple have redecorated the deity's idol with gold and silver ornaments.
Vishavnath Shringi, a goldsmith and ardent devotee of the goddess, said that ornaments and wall plates of more than 4.5 kg of silver and more than 35 grams of gold, costing around Rs 10 lakh, were used for the purpose. Shringi added that silver and gold ornaments, and other decorations were prepared within a month and installed a day before Navratri began. Devotees of the temple donated money for the work, he said. Raktadantika temple, located a few kilometres from the NH 52, is believed to be one of the shaktipeeths of goddess Durga.
