Uchila; March 17: A criminal case was registered with Padubidri Police station in connection with Uchila shree Mahalingeshwara temple’s gold silver jewelry fraud case worth more than Rs 50 lakhs.
On the basis of complaint given by Nagendra, assistant commissioner, Hindu religious and charitable endowment, Padubidri police have registered a criminal case against temple’s trustee and chief priest Ganesh Bhatt and investigation is in progress.
Based on the public complaint about the miss-use of temple’s gold and silver jewelry, when locker was opened on March 07 in front of temple’s hereditary trust and chief priest Ganesh Bhat and verified with the register of gold and silver, it came to light that a total of 35 jewelry items, weighing 868.800 grams worth more than Rs 50 lakhs have gone missing from the locker.
The four citizens of Uchila have complained to the Endowment Department about the temple’s gold, silver jewelry fraud by trustee and priest Ganesh Bhat and manager Venkatesh Navda for the past ten years. In this regard, when Endowment department’s assistant commissioner Nagendra Doddamani and Prashanth Shetty visited and examined, missing of gold and silver jewelry came to light. But opposing the officer’s delay in registering the criminal case against the accused, Uchila public have staged a protest by observing one day Uchila bandh.Now after one week of missing gold,silver jewelry,a criminal case was registered against the accused.
