The death of a thief while trying to decamp with the treasury of a local Jagannath temple in district headquarters town of Ambikapur in north Chhattisgarh on Thursday has triggered panic among the loc
The death of a thief while trying to decamp with the treasury of a local Jagannath temple in district headquarters town of Ambikapur in north Chhattisgarh on Thursday has triggered panic among the locals.
According to the police, the 21-year-old youth, identified as Santosh, collapsed inside the temple while lifting the treasury of the temple and died. Devotees spotted his body lying by the side of the treasury and soon, the news of a “mysterious” death of the alleged temple robber spread like wildfire with people in the surrounding areas thronging the shrine to have a glimpse of the body.
“People have taken the mishap as a punishment for the youth by the god for defiling the temple by stealing the treasury. Devotees at the temple started chanting prayers to ‘calm down’ the god who, they believed, was upset over the incident,” a police officeri nvestigating the incident told this newspaper.
“We found it hard to control the surging crowd. We tried to convince them that it was mere an accident and the youth succumbed to injuries sustained when he was scaling the temple wall. But, our persuasion did not cut much ice with the superstitious gathering,” he added.
Preliminary probe indicated that the youth died of a freak mishap. He may have died on falling down on the ground while scaling the wall, the police said.
