Thieves targeted Baba Vriddheshwar Nath (Budhanath) Temple in the Jogsar police station area of Bhagalpur, along with Sankat Mochan Temple in the same city of Bihar, on Thursday night. The thieves stole a gold nose ring from the idol of Durga temple inside Budhanath temple. Also, the donation box kept in Sankat Mochan Darbar in front of Budhanath Temple was damaged and the money kept in taken out.

Anshuman Anand alias Pushkar Baba, the caretaker of Sankat Mochan Darbar Temple, came to know about the burglary when he reached the temple early in the morning. He found the main door of the temple left ajar and the donation box thrown on the temple floor in a damaged state.

While the caretaker was informing people about the larceny, helpers from the Budhanath temple approached him that the nose ring had been stolen from the murti of Ma Durga too.

After discussing the matter with neighbours, the concerned priests and caretakers reached the house of a young man Gunjan, a drug addict living in the Budhanath area. He was taken out of his home and searched the premises. Some money (Rs 350) along with the nose ring stolen from the Durga idol was recovered from Gunjan’s pocket, which was handed over to the temple management.

Members of the temple management said that a written complaint should be filed at the Jogsar police station. Pushkar Baba said, “A bhandara had been organised in the temple courtyard last Saturday. Devotees also gave donations in the designated box. On reaching the temple the next day, Sunday morning, I saw that the donation box had been twisted and about Rs 10,000 kept in it was missing.”

In the theft that took place on Thursday night, there were about Rs 4,500 in the donation box, that the thieves ran away with, apparently not trying to open the box within the temple premises.

The drug addict, who was found in possession of a meagre Rs 350, said that he had spent the rest of the money on smack.

The temple management and shopkeepers in the area said that the concentration of drug addicts had increased significantly in the Budhanath area of late. “Incidents of petty theft keep happening in the area every day,” a resident said.