Mumbai: 3 get life term, 4 acquitted for 2010 Jain temple robbery, murder of guard

A sessions court in Dindoshi on Saturday sentenced three men to life imprisonment and acquitted four others in a 2010 robbery case of a Jain temple in Borivali, in which a security guard who had tried to prevent the attempt was killed and another was grievously injured.

Those convicted are Harun Shaikh, Ramesh Patil and Santhosh Bhoir. The court also imposed a fine of Rs. 10,000 on each of them. It acquitted Suresh Gupta, Vinodkumar Yadav, Vicky Thapa and Mukesh Yadav.

The robbery had taken place on Aug 22, 2010 in the middle of the night at 3 am at Borivali’s Chandraprabhu Nandeshwar Deep Digamvar Jain temple near Bhagwati hospital. Two security guards of the temple Devi Singh and Rajesh Joshi had tried to prevent the robbery attempt. The robbers had beaten them with sticks and iron rods. In the attack, Singh was killed and Joshi was critically injured.

Six panchdhatu idols of Bhagwan Mahavir Jain, 22 silver umbrellas, crowns and other valuables stolen worth Rs. 4.5 lakhs. An ambulance driver of the nearby hospital had seen the gang flee. He had tried to stop them and they attacked him too. He later gave their description to the police. A tip off had led to the arrests of three, who had led to others of the gang. All accused had previous criminal history in theft and robbery cases.