Puttur, June 17: Silver articles worth about Rs 4.5 lakhs, stolen from Lord Laxmi Venkataramana Temple in Uppinangady in the taluk on June 5th – 2015 were found in a plantation near Nattibail near Uppinangady.
The thief, who had stolen about Rs 1 lakh in cash from donation boxes kept inside the temple and silver items worth about Rs 5.5 lakh, had taken away the cash and some silver articles and had hidden the remaining valuables in the water channel dug in the plantation.
Out of about Rs 6.5 lakh items including Rs 1 lakh in cash stolen from the temple, assets worth Rs 4.5 lakh has been recovered.
On Tuesday June 16th, the workers who had come for agricultural work in the plantation of Krishna Nayak Nattibail, found a plastic bag beneath a channel made to allow water to flow. The bag contained many silver valuables which were recently stolen from the Venkataramana Temple in Uppinangady.
After the information was conveyed to Uppinangady police station, rural police circle inspector, Anil Kulkarni, Uppinangady assistant sub-inspector, Saneev Rai, and others visited the spot and inspected.
Later, priest and members of the temple managing committee came there and identified the stolen items, after which their value was estimated. Although the sniffer dogs and finger print experts were summoned to the spot, they failed to make any headway, as the bag and silver articles had become wet due to rain.
Although the CCTV camera inside the temple has captured the footages of the theft, so far the police were unable to establish the identity of the thief.
Near the spot from where the silver items were found, an outpatient chit issued by Uppinangady primary health centre on June 3rd was also found. It is suspected that thief might have visited the hospital on that day. As the paper has become wet, words written therein were not clearly visible. The police are likely to visit the primary health centre to gather details.
Under the directions of local deputy superintendent of police, Bhaskar Rai N G, a police team had recently visited several places in Kerala including Kasargod, Kahnangad, and Kannur, in search of the thief whose image was captured on CCTV camera, they could not find him, it is gathered.
