A donation box kept at a Shiv Mandir inside the government's secretariat campus here, guarded at least by 50 security personnel, was stolen during the Christmas vacation, police said today.
The theft was noticed by an employee when the secretariat opened yesterday morning after four days of 'Barawafat' and Christmas vacations, Ashok Nagar police said.
Radheyshyam, an Upper Division Clerk at a secretariat library lodged an FIR at the Ashok Nagar police station, they said.
An ASI of the police station is probing the theft.
The box was used to be kept at the temple during office hours and shifted to a library room there at other times.
The theft was noticed by the employee who had kept the box in the library before the vacations.
Police said the employees found lock of the library broken and that of the box smashed.
There was no CCTV camera near the temple, they said.
There might be Rs 15,000 to Rs 16,000 in the box. Donated by employees, the sum was supposed to be used for feeding birds, police said.
The Secretariat security office is also probing the case. They suspect it to be an act of internal employees.
