AURANGABAD, October 12, 2015: Unidentified suspects stole four idols from the Parshavnath Digambar Jain temple early on Saturday, making it the third successful theft at the temple.

The police have failed to crack the earlier thefts and the temple management's step to install CCTV cameras does not seem to have deterred the culprits.

At 6.30 am on Saturday, when temple priest Pandit Ambekar reached the temple for paying morning obeisance, he was shocked to find the idols missing. He soon informed the people from the locality, who rushed to the spot and found the grill of one of the windows broken. The temple priest said that four idols, including that of Lord Parshavnath, Shantilal, Nandishwar and Chowesi, have been stolen by the suspects.

Representatives of the Jain community in the city lodged a strong protest over the theft of the four idols of panchdhatu - made by mixing the five metals of copper, gold, lead, silver and iron, from the temple situated at Vitthalnagar area.

Over the past year, thieves have managed to break into the temple twice and stealing the idols. The city police have not been able to detect the cases.

Deputy commissioner of police Rahul Shrirame said, "We have visited the spot and are working to identify the suspects. We have rounded up some criminals on record and we are hopeful of detecting the case at the earliest." He said that they were closely examining the CCTV footage in which the suspect is seen carrying all the four idols one by one. Source: Times of India