A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Thimphu Police is continuing their investigations to track down the miscreants involved in the theft of a gold butter lamp from the Tango Monastery.
The gold butter lamp, weighing 135 tolas, which is about one and a half kilograms, was stolen from the Jo Lhakhang of Tango Monastery on the night of March 4.
The burglary is suspected to have taken place after 8 pm when the monks were performing soekha at the Lhakhang.
The burglary was discovered only the following morning at around 6:30 by the Lhakhang caretaker when he went to make offerings. The caretaker found the locks of the second and the main door to the Jo Lhakhang broken.
A special investigation team of the Thimphu Police has initially rounded off 21 suspects. The number of suspects has now been scaled down to nine.
The suspects include monks and others working at the monastery, former monks living nearby and the people working for the Tango Lhakhang Restoration Project.
Police are preparing to send the fingerprints and DNA swapping collected from the scene to India for forensic analysis.
Police say the sheer number of people at the Lhakhang is making it difficult to track down the miscreants. There are over 300 monks at the monastery. There are also cooks, drivers and porters.
There also 50 other people including carpenters from across the country working for the Tango Monastery Restoration Project.
The same number of workers, both national and expatriate, is also working at the Tango Buddhist University Construction project.
Lack of records of daily visitors to the Lhakhang is also said to be hampering investigations.
