Junagadh: The local crime branch on Monday arrested two people, including a temple employee, for allegedly desecrating the idol at Shri Guru Gorakshnath Temple on Girnar Hill and throwing it into a nearby forest from a cliff.

The arrested accused include Ramesh Bhatt (50), a local photographer and former temple worker, and Dixit (Kishore) Kukreja (42), a salaried temple employee from Ulhasnagar, Maharashtra. After the arrest, Bhatt confessed that he and Kukreja were responsible for the act.

During a press conference, Saurabh Odedara, SP Junagadh, stated that Kukreja had been employed at the temple for two years. Dissatisfied with his income, he wanted to attract more devotees and increase donations and puja revenues. “To draw public attention and boost footfall, he devised the plot,” Odedara added.

On October 5, Mahant Somnath Bapu discovered the vandalized idol and damaged temple interior. Kukreja misled him by claiming that four unidentified men were responsible, prompting a police complaint. However, investigations revealed that Kukreja and Bhatt had broken into the temple at night, locked the priest’s room, and desecrated the idol.

Extensive CCTV analysis and examination of the movements of over 500 people, along with questioning of 200 locals, exposed insider involvement. Bhatt later confessed that the duo smashed the glass enclosure, removed the 50-kg idol after the evening aarti on October 4, and threw it off a cliff. DeshGujarat