The temple of Lord Hanuman is situated in Khopat area of Maharashtra’s Thane district
While many people believe in bowing before a higher deity prior to starting any important deed, this was taken to another extent in Maharashtra recently.
A bizarre case of a thief seeking blessings before stealing a temple’s donation box has gone viral on the Internet. In a recent video that has been doing the rounds on YouTube, a CCTV footage of a scene inside the temple of Lord Hanuman has been captured. The temple is situated in Khopat area of Maharashtra’s Thane district, near Mumbai.
In the footage, a young man can be seen inside the temple, pretending to take photos with his mobile phone. He moves around stealthily and keeps looking around to check if anyone is there in sight. He then surprisingly bows down and touches the idol of Lord Hanuman kept in the temple as a mark of respect and to seek blessings.
Immediately after paying his respect, the young man seizes the opportunity and grabs hold of the temple donation box. He flees quickly with the donation box to an unknown location.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2x-41V7ZHE
The incident is said to have occurred on 9 November between 8 pm to 9: 30 pm when the priest of the temple had apparently gone out for some work. The 30-second video which was shared on YouTube and has gone viral on social media was used for investigation by the police.
Senior Inspector Sanjay Dhumal of the Naupada Police Station showed the footage to a number of people living in and around the area in order to identify the suspect. This helped the police to gain identification of the thief.
Footage from CCTV cameras installed outside the temple were also viewed and examined thoroughly by the police. The CCTV footage outside the temple showed that the young man was not alone and had an accomplice. The accomplice was waiting for the young man outside and was seen helping the thief flee from the scene along with the donation box.
Police identified both the suspects after an investigation procedure and nabbed the two thieves. The accused have been identified as an 18-year-old and 21-year-old from Rabodi, Thane.
The temple priest had said that the donation box had a sum of around Rs 1,000 but the police has only recovered Rs 536 from the accused, along with the donation box.