Half a dozen idols of Hindu gods were recovered from the Charwa Dam in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh district on Friday, leading to frenzy in the area with devotees setting up a makeshift temple for worshipping.
The idols were spotted by villagers in the morning who went near the dam to relieve themselves.
Among those recovered were a two-feet-long Shiva linga, and white stone idols of Lord Hanuman, Lord Vishnu, Goddess Parvati and Nandi, police said.
As the news of the recovery spread, people from far and wide reached the spot. A tent was brought in by some people and a makeshift temple was set up with devotees starting to perform different rituals.
The idols, suspected to have been stolen from temples in the areas, are intact, said Abhishek Kumar Singh, the officer-in-charge of Pelawal police station.
The idols were found submerged in the dam's water and likely to have been hidden there for selling, he said.
The dam, which supplies water to Hazaribagh town and nearby villages, gets full during the rainy season but with the onset of the winter, the water has receded, exposing the idols kept hidden there, police said.
The idols were later seized and taken to the police station, they said.
All the nearby police stations have been asked to check if any such idols were stolen from the temples in their areas, Singh said.
Meanwhile, Bajrang Dal activists also rushed to the spot and demanded that security be increased at the temples in the district.
A large idol of Goddess Kali was recovered nine years back from the dam reservoir during excavation. Following this, the villagers of Kanchanpur and Charwa built a Kali temple on the western bank of the reservoir with their contribution and a large number of devotees visit the temple daily.
The dam was built by the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) in 1952.
Secret Tunnel Linked To Canal Found In Bengal Beneath Swindler's Home Jharkhand Woman Dies Mid-Way While Being Carried To Hospital On Cot 3 Travelling On Roof Of Bus Die Of Electrocution In Jharkhand: Police "Jindal Group Executive Showed Porn, Groped Me On Flight": Woman To NDTV Bangladesh Imposes Curfew, Deploys Military As 105 Die In Protests Over 300 Indian Students Return Home As 105 Bangladeshis Killed In Protests Wife Among Two Jailed For Life For Man's Murder In Gurugram: Cops 1,100 Flights Cancelled In US As Microsoft Outage Disrupts Operations Elon Musk Congratulates PM Modi On Becoming Most Followed Leader On X Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.