Satkhira SP declares reward for identifying man who stole gold crown gifted by Modi

The superintendent of police (SP) of Satkhira, Mohammad Monirul Islam, has announced a reward to anyone for their help in identifying or catching the thief who stole a gold crown, gifted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, from the Jeshoreshwari Kali Temple at Shyamnagar upazila in Satkhira.

SP Monirul's decision was announced through a post on the Facebook page of Satkhira District Police yesterday (11 October).

Satkhira police urged everyone to assist in recovering the stolen gold crown. The Satkhira SP will bestow a special reward to the person who will help find the thief, read the Facebook post. However, it did not mention what the reward would be.

At around 2:49pm on Thursday (10 October), the gold crown — which was gifted by Narendra Modi on 27 March 2021 during his Bangladesh visit — was stolen by an unidentified man from Jeshoreshwari Kali Temple, according to the CCTV video footage.

The footage showed the man loitering in the temple premises for a while and entering the Goddess Kali's room at 2:49pm. Within moments, he took the crown, hid it under his t-shirt and was seen leaving the temple grounds calmly.

Police started investigating since the incident and are yet to identify the man. No case has been filed yet as well.

Meanwhile, the Indian High Commission in Bangladesh in a post on its official Facebook page yesterday said, "We have seen reports of theft of the crown gifted by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to Jeshoreshwari Kali Temple in Satkhira District in 2021 during his visit to Bangladesh."

"We express deep concern on the incident and urge the Government of Bangladesh to investigate the theft, recover the crown and take action against the perpetrators," read the post.