Mangaluru, Sep 26: With the arrest of five members of a notorious gang of inter-state thieves, Dakshina Kannada district police have cracked a series of temple theft cases reported from across the coastal district.
The arrested have been identified as Chandrakanth Poojary (36) from Manki in Honnavar taluk, Narasimharaju alias Basavaraju (38) from Doddaballapur taluk, Navinchandra Baan Singh (21) Vijaya Suresh Bhonsle (35) and Vishal Ponke (21), all three from Thane, Maharashtra.
Dakshina Kannada superintendent of police Bhushan Gulabrao Borase told media persons that the arrested were part of a six member gang of thieves, among whom one lost his life in a road accident a couple of months ago.
He said that the gang had stolen gold and silver articles worth Rs 12.5 lakh in the last six months from various temples in the district including Sri Durgaparameshwari Temple, Adyapadi village, Mangaluru ; Sri Subrahmanya Temple, Thokur, Mangaluru; Sri Panchalingeshwara Temple, Ishwaramangala, Puttur; Sri Panchalingeshwara Temple, Uruwalu village, Belthangady; Sri Durgaparameshwari Temple, Anaru, Patrame village, Belthangady; Sri Vishnumurthy Temple, Savanuru village, Putturu; Sri Umamaheshwari Temple, Balya village, Puttur; Sri Anantapadmanabha Temple, Ramakunja, Puttur; Sri Ullalthi Ammanavara Temple, Nuji, Puttur and Sri Mahalingeshwara Temple, Rayi, Bantwal.
The arrested were involved in temple thefts in other parts of Karnataka and Maharashtra. All of them were wanted by both Karnataka and Maharashtra police.
Their associate Prakash Mandya was killed in a road accident in Nelamangala, Bengaluru while he was returning after theft at Ullalthi Ammanavara Temple, Nuji, Puttur. Chandrakanth Poojary had escaped with minor injuries in the same accident.
Explaining the modus operandi of the thieves, the SP said that the gang used to target the temples that lack security measures such as security guards, CCTV cameras and burglar alarms.
Then they used to sell all stolen articles to Vishal, a small merchant in Mumbai after making him believe that they were the antique ornaments from the temples.
Mr Borase said that the police have seized 22 kg silver and 75 gram gold ornaments worth Rs 12.5 lakh from the possession of Vishal. All the seized ornaments will be handed over to the temple authorities after obtaining permission from the court, he said.
A special investigation team had been formed by the DK police to trace the temple thieves, after a series of temple burglary cases were reported in a few months. Additional SP Dr C B Vedamurty, Puttur ASP Rishyanth, DySP Gowrish, DCIB PI Amanulla, Puttur Rural CPI?Anil Kulkarni, PSI Abdul Khader, PSI Ratan Kumar, ASI Sanjiva Purusha, Palanivel, Udaya Rai, Iqbal A E, Taranath S, Lakshman and Pravin M Beltangady were part of the DCIB team.
Comments
Add new comment