Serial Temple Thieves Caught

The City Police have arrested two persons who were allegedly involved in 18 temple burglaries which includes Mahankali Temple at Lal Darwaza and Mahankali Temple at Uppuguda.

According to City Police Commissioner Anurag Sharma, in the recent past, a number of burglaries in the temples during the night had occurred at various parts of the city. It was really a great challenge for the City Police to detect those cases. Various teams were formed by the Law and Order police and Central Crime Station.

A team formed by Central Crime Station headed by Inspector Venkat Giri and other team members comprising sub-inspector Mohammed Amjad, Head Constables Ramchander, Venkatesh, Younus, Koteshwar Rao and Home Guard Abdul Razzak, has succeeded in apprehending the accused.

The accused - Mohammad Hussain Ali (22) and Shaik Hyder (35) were arrested by the police and, during interrogation, they reportedly confessed of having committed 18 temple burglaries.

Explaining the modus operandi, the commissioner said that before committing offences, the accused used to carry out the reconnaissance of the area and the target during the day time. Both the accused persons used to disguise as rag pickers in a tricycle garbage carrier, pretending that they were collecting rags near the temple.

Accused Mohammed Hussain used to break open the locks of the temple with the help of long iron rod, which he used to carry. The other accused Shaik Hyder used to give cover Hussain by standing outside the temple and at times he used to unfold the bed sheet outside the door of the temple by giving an impression that he wants to spread the sheet on the floor and would sleep there.

They used to carry the booty in the gunny bag, which is used to collect the waste papers. In some of the offences, they had used a two wheeler also. They had committed the offences in between 2.00 AM and 3.00 AM.

Police have recovered a part of the stolen property weighing about 2 Kgs Silver ornaments/utensils and some gold ornaments from the above arrested persons.

The receivers of the property are at large and efforts are being made to locate them, the Commissioner said. (INN)