Beltangady, October 24: Burglary that took place in August 2014 at the Sri Shantinatha Swami Jain Temple at Purushagudde, Kutloor near Naravi, falling under Venoor police jurisdiction has been cracked by the Mangaluru city crime branch police. Ornaments and valuables worth lakhs of rupees were stolen.
When the temple priest went to offer poojas on next day morning, the theft came to light.
The arrested men are identified as Afreem Shiyad (19) from Farangipet, Ummer Farooq Irfan (19), from Katipalla second block near Suratkal, Kaushik Nihal (19), a resident of Vulachil, and Muhammed Rafiq (26) from Arukula village near B C Road.
It is said that the arrested thieves were also involved in several cases of chain snatching and theft of motor bikes. In many cases, they used to target houses where women are found alone, and they used to either steal from such houses or decamp after snatching chains from the necks of women. After stealing motor bikes, they used to change the number plates and replace with fake ones. Information about these youngsters using such motor bikes for committing thefts in temples, Basadis, shops, and other business firms were gathered, informed the police.
At present a Karimani chain and other ornaments worth Rs 6 lakhs, cell phone, and motor bikes worth Rs 9 lakhs, has been recovered.
When the theft had taken place, District superintendent of police, Dr S D Sharanappa, ASP Rahul Kumar, Circle Inspector, B R Lingappa, Venoor SHO, Vinayaka Baillava, and others had visited the Basadi and investigated. Even canine squad and finger print experts had been taken to the spot, but the till now the thieves managed to escape.
The police team led by CCB inspector Valentine D’Souza, arrested them in relation to theft of ornaments from a house where a single woman stayed and during their interrogation, the accused revealed about their involvement in theft at Basadi.
