After months of fruitless investigation
and mounting public pressure, Bali Police announced on Sunday that
investigators had smashed a ring believed to be responsible for most of
the thefts targeting sacred objects kept in Hindu temples across the
island. The first burglary of sacred objects this year took place in
March. Since then, 30 burglaries have been reported to the police, with
the three most recent cases taking place on Saturday in Melaya,
Jembrana. The police had been under a lot of pressure to solve the
thefts, which for Balinese not only desecrated their places of worship
but also insulted them.
Following a visit from scores of noted
religious and community leaders, Bali Police deputy chief Brig. Gen. I
Ketut Untung Yoga declared the formation of a special team to hunt down
the suspects. At the Sunday press conference, senior-ranking detective
Adj. Sr. Comr. Hari Hariadi disclosed that the police had arrested four
individuals, who were allegedly directly involved or implicated in the
thefts at up to 16 temples. The suspects were identified only as IWD,
IN, KB and MP. The investigators insisted on releasing only the
suspects’ initials, fearing that releasing their full names would alert
their colleagues, who are still at large.
Even their faces were covered with
balaclavas when they were being paraded before the journalists. The
police said that they were now hunting several individuals, who had
allegedly bought the stolen items from the suspects, as well as other
rings believed to be responsible for the remaining unsolved thefts. Hari
Hariadi disclosed that the investigators made the first breakthrough
when they arrested IWD on Tuesday. The Balinese man was wanted for
stealing Chinese coins and a diamond ring from a small temple in Iseh
hamlet, Karangasem, and a kris dagger from the house of Adah Salip in
Karangasem.
“During interrogation, the suspect
crumbled and confessed that he had also committed burglaries targeting
sacred objects at several temples in different regencies. He also named
three other individuals involved in the crimes.” The other three
suspects were detained on Saturday. IWD stated that MP acted as the
field coordinator during the burglaries, while KB acted as the boss,
ordering the burglaries and selling the stolen objects to the fences.
One of the fences has been identified as I Ketut MD, while members of
the ring who are still at large were identified as S and A. The suspects
admitted that they had committed the burglaries at five temples in
Karangasem, three in Bangli, two in Gianyar and one temple each in
Tabanan and Badung.
The suspects were not quite sure about
the locations of the four remaining temples. “We believe that this wave
of burglaries may involve more than one ring and may also involve alone
burglar.” The temples’ sacred objects, in particular the pretima, or
small statues made of precious woods usually bedecked with gold and
gemstones, are very valuable items for Balinese Hindus because they
serve as the earthly, physical presence of their gods. The loss of a
pretima cuts deeply into the psyche of the community, which feels
violated by the theft and, at the same time, abandoned by the grace and
protection of their deities.
Creating a new pretima would be expensive
for communities, and they would also have to conduct a series of major
rituals to purify and enshrine the object. It is for this reason that so
many Balinese Hindus have demanded that the judiciary not treat such
thefts as common criminal acts. Instead, they argue, the perpetrators
must be tried for desecration.
source : bali daily
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