PONDA: In a brazen act of theft, unknown miscreants targeted the Sai Baba Temple situated atop a hill in the isolated area of Saigarh at Adpoi-Durbhat, Ponda late Thursday night. The thieves broke into the temple premises and uprooted the large donation box, stealing cash amounting to around Rs 50,000.
Locals discovered the theft early Friday morning when they noticed the latch on the main door of the temple was broken. The missing donation box was later found discarded in the bushes behind the temple. It is suspected that the thieves, owing to the weight of the donation box, required the assistance of at least three to four individuals to carry it out of the temple, before breaking it open in the secluded area.
Vishwanath Naik, the President of the Sai Baba Temple, expressed dismay over the incident. He recalled a similar theft in 2011 when an unknown individual attacked a devotee inside the temple premises to commit theft. Naik said that the temple, established in 2010, had become a target for criminals, urging the police to enhance surveillance in the area to prevent such incidents from recurring.
The timing of the theft, during the Shigmo Festival when locals were preoccupied with celebrations, suggests that the thieves took advantage of the festive atmosphere to carry out their criminal activities unnoticed. In response to the incident, the Ponda police conducted a panchanama, initiating investigations into the matter.
