Pune: Ekvira spire recovered, two arrested

Nearly a year-and-a-half since the theft of the famous golden spire of Ekvira goddess, the Pune rural police on Tuesday claimed to have cracked the case by arresting two persons and recovering the spire from them.

The spire of the famous temple situated near Karla caves was stolen on October 3, 2017. Interestingly, the Ekvira goddess is also the family deity of Shiv Sena's Thackeray family that the family members visit regularly to offer prayers. The spire's theft was even raised in the state Assembly and the investigation was handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

The Pune rural police, however, managed to crack the case when they arrested two persons from the neighbouring Ahmednagar district. The arrested persons — identified as Rahul Bhagwat Gawande (23) and Somnath Ashok Gawande (23) — had visited the temple on the day of its annual gathering when they managed to steal the spire of the temple.

Sandeep Patil, superintendent of police (Pune rural) said, "They had visited the temple for the first time and while they had participated in the gathering of devotees, they heard a devotional song which had a description of the spire of gold for the goddess. That line caught their attention and they decided to steal the spire."

During that annual gathering, the renovation work of the temple was also underway so they managed to sneak up and steal it.