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Gold plated ‘Kalasams’ on top of TN Siva temple stolen

- March 1, 2022

Chennai, March 1 (BPNS)

People of Vridhachalam in the Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu woke up to shocking news on the Maha Sivaratri day. Three gold-plated ‘Kalasams’ on top of the famous Viruthagireeswar Siva temple at Vridachalam in Cudallore district were missing on Tuesday morning. The ‘Kalasams’, each weighing more than 300 kgs atop the ‘Vimanam’ of the temple were stolen.

The temple is considered one of the four top Siva shrines in the country among the 1008 Shiva temples that are considered in high esteem.

Vridhachalam Police have registered a case and the investigation is on.

Local residents and temple priests on Tuesday morning found that the ‘Kalasams’ above the ‘Vmanam’ in the temple was missing and had immediately alerted the police.

District Superintendent of Police, S. Sakthi Ganeshan after inspecting the scene said that the criminals would have used a ladder to climb atop the ‘Vimanam’ and stolen the ‘Kalasams’.

While speaking to BPNS, the District Superintendent of Police said, “ We have done a proper study of the CCTV footage in the temple and have found proper leads. We are zeroing in on the culprits and will apprehend them soon.”

The Viruthagireeswar temple at Cuddalore is believed to be more than 2500 years old.

It may be noted that several precious temple artifacts including idols were stolen from various temples in the state and after the Temple theft squad was constituted, some of these idols and other temple artifacts could be traced back and retrieved.