Donation box with Rs 10,000 stolen from Thane temple; probe on

Thane, Mar 9 (PTI) Unidentified miscreants allegedly broke into a temple in Maharashtra's Thane district and decamped with a donation box containing about Rs 10,000, police said on Monday.

The incident occurred at the Kasarhat Vaishya Mandir of Sri Bal Mitra Ganesh Mandal in the Kalyan area in the early hours of Saturday, an official from the Bazarpeth police station said.

The accused forcibly entered the temple premises and stole the steel 'hundi' (donation box), containing about Rs 10,000 in cash offered by devotees, kept in front of the deity, the official said.

The police suspect the accused gained entry into the premises during the night hours and fled with the donation box before the temple reopened on Saturday morning.

The CCTV footage of the temple premises and nearby areas was being examined to identify the culprits, the police said.

Based on a complaint, the Bazarpeth police registered an FIR on Sunday against unidentified persons under sections 331(4) (house trespass) and 305 (theft) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), they added. PTI COR GK