Eight arrested for looting temple funds

Berhampur: At least eight persons were arrested on the charge of looting the 'hundi' (funds) of a temple in Odisha's Ganjam district and receiving stolen gold ornaments from it.

Police said gold ornaments weighing around 48 grams, cash around Rs 10,000, which were stolen from the temple and three mobile phones were seized from them last night.

Two of them were arrested for receiving and melting the stolen gold ornaments, police said.

The accused had alleged looted the 'hundi' of the Jagannth temple at Sodaka, which had cash around Rs 31,000 and gold ornaments of around 300 grams on February 15.

The inspector-in charge of Polasara police station Tapaswini Kanha said the entire gang could be busted by tracking the mobile phone calls of one of the accused persons.

Police said the miscreants had taken the assistance of the another gang to loot the temple hundi and at least two of its members were involved in the crime.