Bhubaneswar, Nov 10: The Ashtadhatu idol of Goddess ‘Kotrakshi’ which was stolen from the temple in Darpangarh, Jajpur district has finally been brought back.
The Customs officials handed over the idol to Odisha Police in New Delhi in the presence of Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday.
Pradhan had earlier written to Sitharaman, highlighting the discovery of an Ashtadhatu idol at Delhi airport the previous year. Subsequently, the idol was sent to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for examination, where it was identified as the idol of Maa Kotrakshi, the principal deity of Jajpur. The idol has since been kept at the Customs Commissioner's office in New Delhi Air Cargo.
The idol was reported stolen from Darpangarh on January 11, 2021, leading to a police complaint filed with the Barchana police the following day. As police failed to recover the stolen idol despite continuous protests and demands from the villagers, they installed a replacement idol of the goddess seven months after the theft.
