The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Burglars break open temple `hundis', decamp with cash, valuables

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 28, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Burglars break open temple `hundis', decamp with cash, valuables

Staff Reporter

CLOSE SCRUTINY: Fingerprint experts inspecting a `hundi' of the Ramanathaswamy Temple at Rameswaram on Friday. — Photo: C. JAISHANKAR

RAMESWARAM: Burglars on Friday broke open two hundis of the Ramanathaswamy temple here and decamped with cash and jewels. The incident took place in the early hours.

The burglars climbed atop the famous temple and gained entry into the first corridor after cutting open a ventilator with `rumbum' and axes. The intruders, with the help of a rope, scaled down to the second corridor where the main hundi is kept opposite the sanctum sanctorum.

They opened the strong steel hundi, which is about 4 feet long and 4 feet wide, after breaking two out of the three sealed locks. They also broke open another hundi in the first corridor.

Durairaj, a temple employee, noticed the burglary when the temple was opened at 5.30 a.m. A police team soon reached the spot and recovered the `rumbum', five axes and matchsticks. Fingerprint experts obtained prints from inside and outside the broken hundis and the entry points.

"We generally open the hundis for counting once a month. The hundis were opened on April 13," S. Alagarsamy, Deputy Commissioner of the temple, told The Hindu . Two special teams have been formed to nab the accused.

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