Imphal, February 17: Amid recovery of silver plate affixed to the gold plated stolen idol of Laxminarayanan of Shri Shri Govindajee Temple, hectic efforts are on to track the miscreants involved in the crime, said police.

Members of the Govindajee Temple Board informed the recovery of the silver plate, stolen in the wee hours yesterday along with cash of Rs 10,000, from inside the temple premise today.

Mention may be made that looters who broke in through the southern boundary wall of the historic religious site decamped with the gold plated idol, donated money from five boxes and a mattress in the intervening night of February 15-16.The temple that began construction in 1907 during the reign of Churachand Maharaj was inaugurated in Dec 1910 and is adjacent to the palace complex of former Kings of Manipur.

Remarking that recovery of the silver item is a great relief, the Board Members expressed confidence of retrieving the other looted items within a short period.

They also recalled contribution of the then British administrators to building the temple in terms of importing materials from England and instance of similar incident that took place in 1960.Meanwhile, the temple's broken window and iron grill, through which the looters entered the temple interiors, have been repaired.

Mentioning that at present some unarmed Home Guard personnel are manning security of the temple, the Board lamented undermining repeated request to the Government to provide armed police personnel.

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