Bengaluru: The Kadugondenahalli police arrested a 65-year-old man and recovered a 221 gm gold mangalsutra worth over Rs 6 lakh that was stolen from the deity at the Amba Maheshwari temple in Kamakshipalaya on August 23.
The arrested, Nagaraj, alias Khoja Nagaraj alias Fayaz, is a resident of Rashad Nagar, Govindapura in K.G. Halli. With his arrest, the police claim to have solved cases going back to 49 years. Nagaraj, a habitual offender, started stealing in 1966 when he was just 10 years old.
The police suspect that Nagaraju had a hand in most of the major temple theft cases in Udupi, Mysuru and Bengaluru City and Rural limits, the police said. Though Nagaraju is married and has a child, he behaved like a transgender to gain people’s trust.
Despite being a Muslim by birth, Nagaraju took time to learn slokas chanted by Brahmin priests at temples and he recced the temples by working on the temple premises by taking care of devotees’ footwear.
