Rs 50L lights stolen from Ram temple in Ayodhya

LUCKNOW: In a curious theft case, around 3,800 newly-installed bamboo lights and 36 gobo projector lights, collectively worth more than Rs 50 lakh, were stolen from the highly-secured Bhakti Path and Ram Path in Ayodhya. An FIR in this connection was registered at Ayodhya’s Ram Janmabhoomi police station on Monday night.

The Ayodhya Police said they were probing the veracity of the claim in the FIR. As per the police sources, the theft came to light when Shekhar Sharma, a representative of the company Yash Enterprises and Krishna Automobiles, which were awarded the contract to install the lights, filed a report via email two days ago.

On the contrary, in a major development in the case, a counter FIR was being registered on late Wednesday night by Ayodhya police against the vendor who got the report of theft of lights registered as the claims made by him in the police complaint were found to be fake. As per the statement issued by Ayodhya Development Authority Vice Chairman Ashwini Kumar Pandey, while checking the veracity of the claim of theft of decorative lights by the vendor, the ADA found that only 2600 bamboo lights were installed on the trees and not 3800 as was claimed in the vendor’s complaint.

The statement further said that 3800 lights were never installed. The vendor has made false claims to extract extra payment from the authorities and to save his skin.

Police said Shekhar Sharma claimed that the incident of theft had come to his notice on May 9 this year, when he discovered that the lights were missing during a routine check, a month after his previous inspection.

The firms roped in by the Ayodhya Development Authority (ADA), had installed 6,400 bamboo lights on the trees along Ram Path and 96 gobo projector lights on Bhakti Path.

As per the police sources, though the firm became aware of the theft in May, but the FIR was only filed on August 9, two months after the incident. The complainant didn’t explain why it took him three months to report the matter.

Ayodhya police said that the complaint did not come to the police station and was registered through the e-FIR system. The veracity of the complaint is being verified and the matter is being probed. There is speculation that the firm responsible for mounting these lights had put up fewer lights than promised.

However, the accuracy of the number of lights stolen is being checked through CCTV footage of the vicinity. The Senior Superintendent of Police Raj Karan Nayyar, said Sharma was requested to assist the police authorities.