Mumbai: Around 36 disciples of self-styled godman Dhirendra Krishna Shastri were robbed of their gold jewellery at his two-day event which began on Saturday at Salasar Central Park Ground in Mira Road.
The Mira Road police officers said that the amount of the stolen gold ornaments were very high and they are ascertaining the same. The event which was attended by over two lakh devotees also saw chaos, injuring one woman. It was due to a lack of management to handle such a huge crowd. For Sunday’s event, the police tightened the security at the entry points of the venue. According to police officers, there was a stampede-like situation, they diverted their attention to making sure no severe injuries occurred to the people who had gathered there.
Sunita Gawli, a resident of Mira Road and one of the complainants, said that her two-year-old daughter had been ill for the past several days. She had seen Shastri’s healing power videos wherein he has diagnosed and cured diseases on her mobile phone and decided to put her daughter’s name in the chit, “I hoped baba would select my daughter’s name and cure her but instead my mangalsutra was robbed which was the only gold ornament I owned,” said Gawli.
The event, organised by Shantaben Mithalal Jain Charitable Trust has been opposed by a few anti-superstition organisations. These groups had submitted a memorandum to the police on Friday, requesting them not to give permission for the event.
Another devotee, Shobhawati Yadav, was shocked after she lost her gold chain which was allegedly robbed while she was entering the ground, “It was crowded and there were no crowd control personnel there. When I somehow managed to get inside the ground, I realised that my gold chain was missing,” said Yadav.
Geeta Prajapati (35) from Kandivali had also thought that she had dropped her mangalsutra due to the crowd, “There was chaos everywhere and several people did not even get a place to sit on the ground. I realised that someone had robbed my chain after people pointed out that several women had been robbed,” said Prajapati.
The event organisers did not comment on the issue till the time of going to press.
A police officer from Mira Road police station said, “We are scanning the CCTVs of the area to find out and look for suspects. We have registered cases of theft and are investigating them.”
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