The police have arrested Praveen Bhat (27), an alleged temple thief, and seized valuables worth Rs. 3 lakh from him. The police said he would pass himself off as destitute and join as a priest at the temple to access the sanctum sanctorum before looting the shrine.
The Kalasipalya police seized 50 gm gold, 3.1 kg silver and two antique idols from him. They said Praveen had been involved in six such cases across Tyagarajanagar, K.G. Nagar, Upparpet, Banashankari, J.P. Nagar and Kalasipalya police station limits .
Gangs arrested
Pulikeshinagar police arrested a gang of 13 for burglary and seized valuables worth Rs. 25 lakh from the members. All hailing from Bihar, the accused include Anil Kumar Yadav (32), Lal Babu Ghosai (41), Pappugiri (21), Lalan Kumar (39), Rajesh Shah (25), Yogeender Paswan (38), Jaffer Hussein (38), Bijoy Kumar Giri (29), Manjar Ansari (30), Saleem Ansari (30) and Dharmednra Kumar (21). The police also claimed that the accused were involved in nine burglaries.
According to the police, the gang had robbed cameras, television sets and cash amounting to Rs. 1.35 lakh after they broke into a Sony showroom on Coles Road. The police, who went through the CCTV footage at the showroom, initially arrested Madhu (30) and Nayeem Hadeesh Devan (34). Their interrogation led to the other gang members though the police suspect there are more culprits involved.
In another case, Basaveshwaranagar police arrested seven men while they were allegedly plotting to mug people in a garage near Laggere Road in Premnagar and seized Rs. 4 lakh from them.
The suspects are Vinod, Kiran, Nagesh, Abhishek, Shiva, Gajendra and Ravikumar. The police said Nagesh had been involved in the February 11 robbery of his former employer Srinivas Mudaliar, who runs Global Specialty Services.
