At 12:30 am on a Friday morning, an unidentified robber broke through the Swaminarayan Mandir in Willesden and stole 3 Murtis (portraits) of the Hare Krishna Maharaj along with 3 of his gold chains and small Mukuts. These Murtis appear to be made of gold however, they are actually made of Brass. The other Gold Murtis are safe and nothing else appears to be damaged.
The robber appears to have broken through the scaffolding of the nearby Regeneration building. However it was only at 01:30 in the morning that the Mandir's priest heard a noise and woke up 4 other people to look at the source of disruption.
According to Kurjibhai Kerai, Swaminarayan Temple, Willesden - "This looks like a motivated robbery as if almost someone had come to survey the area before in the afternoon and then planned the robbery at night"
The Alarm system had been disabled on Thursday afternoon when a false alarm had gone off amidst celebrations and needed to be reset. However, due to some technical engineering process, it failed and therefore, there wasn't any immediate knowledge of the burglary.
The police arrived at the scene within minutes of reporting the crime at about 01:30 at night. The details about the robber or the valuation of the robbed gold is still unknown as the police continue to investigate the CCTV footage.
"Police were called at 01:50hrs on Friday. Cash and other items are believed to have been stolen. Although, no arrest have been made yet, enquiries still continue." said Met Police in a statement to Asian Voice.
Yesterday, the temple celebrated the Hindu New Year in the eminent presence of Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, councillor of Brent Muhammed Butt among others.
Similar burglary at Swaminarayan Mandir in Harrow
In the early hours of Tuesday morning on 13th November there was a similar robbery that was reported at the Swaminarayan Mandir in Harrow. No murtis have been stolen according to the Mandir officials however, they haven't yet inspected through all the valuables to estimate if and how much of the valuables are stolen.
The Mandir is open and so far, no damage has been reported. MP Gareth Thomas tweeted about the incident-
"Very concerned to hear of break-ins at two important local temples in Kenton & Willesden Green. I welcome the prompt police response and I hope the individuals responsible are caught & properly dealt with quickly!"
No further information has been provided about the robbers and update is awaited on the police investigation.
