New Delhi: India has raised deep concern over the theft of the crown on an idol of the Hindu deity Kali in Bangladesh’s Satkhira district. The crown had been a gift to the temple from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Indian High Commission at Dhaka wrote in a post on X:
“We have seen reports of theft of the crown gifted by PM Modi to Jeshoreshwari Kali Temple (Satkhira) in 2021 during his visit to 🇧🇩
“We express deep concern & urge Govt of Bangladesh to investigate theft, recover the crown & take action against the perpetrators.”
Modi visited the Jeshoreshwari Kali Temple at Ishwaripur in Satkhira in 2021.
Official sources at the Ministry of External Affairs said that India was “deeply disturbed” by the reported incident. They also said that the High Commission in Dhaka is in touch with Bangladesh authorities over this.
New Delhi has urged Bangladeshi law enforcement authorities to investigate the incident, recover the stolen article and bring the guilty to the books.
On October 10, the gold-plated crown was discovered by the temple’s cleaning staff as having gone missing.
Bangladesh newspaper Prothom Alo reported the temple’s priest Dilip Kumar Mukherjee as having said that he left the temple at 2 pm on the day. “A little later, cleaning staff entered the temple. They informed us after a while that the crown is missing,” he said.
Police have begun investigations.
After the student-led quota reform protests in Bangladesh led to the prime minister Sheikh Hasina quitting and leaving the country, there were reports of the Hindu minority coming in the path of attacks. Hours after he took charge, interim head of government and the country’s chief advisor Muhammad Yunus paid a visit to the Dhakeshwari Temple in Dhaka in a move to urge for tolerance in the country.