"An internal inquiry by the temple's management committee revealed that 1.4 kg gold and around 50 kg silver ornaments were missing from the temple's locker," O.P. Mishra, Additional Police Commissioner (Economic Offences Wing) told .
The probe has been launched after the temple's committee lodged an FIR on Friday last week.
According to the FIR, the temple's committee received a valuation certificate from a jeweller in 2013, in which it was mentioned that annual temple donations containing 26 packets of silver ornaments and 16 gold packets were melted.
During the committee's investigation, it was revealed that the certificate was fake and the jeweller had neither received the jewellery nor melted it.
The jeweller disclosed that he had verified the weight of 1.4 kg gold and other silver jewellery on being asked by former committee members of the temple. He also issued a purity certificate.
The bank records showed that the lockers were not used in May 2013. Moreover, the said valuation certificate was also not incorporated in the annual balance sheet of the committee. Besides, the written documents related to the jewellery was also missing from the bank lockers, the FIR stated.
Following the internal probe, the temple's committee registered an FIR with EOW on Friday.
(Sanjeev Kumar Singh Chauhan can be contacted at sanjeev.c@.in)
( With inputs from IANS )