Priest accused of stealing gold ornaments from temple deity in Karnataka

UDUPI: A priest has been accused of stealing gold ornaments adorned by the deity at the Gangolli Kharvikeri Shri Mahankali Temple. In a complaint, Madi Shankar, 65, from Guddadi village in Kundapur and president of the temple’s managing committee, stated that they had appointed Narasimha as the priest on May 16 this year.
On Sept 21 , at around 7 pm., while performing rituals in the temple's sanctum, the priest allegedly took the gold ornaments under the pretext of cleaning them for the upcoming Navaratri festival.Upon inspection, the managing committee discovered that the ornaments were fake and not made of genuine gold. When questioned, the priest admitted to having taken the original gold ornaments for personal use.
It is alleged that between May 16 and Sept 21, the accused, while serving as the temple priest, misappropriated a total of 264 grams of gold ornaments worth Rs 21.12 lakh, which had been offered by devotees and the temple management. He replaced some of the original ornaments with counterfeit ones, committing fraud in the process.
The complainant stated that the priest was provided with a monthly salary and housing, and the gold ornaments offered by devotees and the management board were regularly used to adorn the deity. A case has been registered at Gangolli Police Station under Sections 314, 316(2), 316(4), 318(2), and 318(4) of BNS.