'Shivling' stolen from Gujarat temple recovered; four relatives held

Dwarka: Police have arrested four persons and recovered the stone ‘Shivling’ which was stolen from a temple in Devbhumi Dwarka district of Gujarat on the eve of Mahashivratri, officials said on Thursday.

The accused had stolen the Shivling on February 25 and installed it on the premises of their house near Himmatnagar town in Sabarkantha district with the belief that it would bring prosperity, the Devbhumi Dwarka police said in a release.

The four accused were identified as Jagatsinh Makwana, Manoj Makwana, Mahendra Makwana and Vanrajsinh Makwana, it said, adding that police managed to trace them with the help of human intelligence and technical inputs.

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Mahendra Makwana claimed that his niece saw a dream wherein God told her that his family would prosper if she installs the Shivling of Shree Bhidbhanjan Bhavaneeshvar Mahadev temple, located on the shore of the Arabian Sea at Kalyanpur and near the famous pilgrimage site of Harsiddhi Mataji temple, the police said.

After he was told about the dream, Makwana and his three distant relatives reached the spot in a vehicle a day before, conducted a recce and took the Shivling along with them. Thereafter, they installed that Shivling in the compound of their house on a temporary structure made of bricks and mud, they said.

After the incident came to light two days ago, separate teams of the local crime branch, special operations group and local police were formed along with forensic experts and a dog squad to investigate the case.

A case was registered under section 305 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for theft, the release said.

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