Bengaluru: The city police have arrested a gang of four people for their involvement in a series of burglaries in 17 temples, in and around the city over the past couple of months.
The arrested have been identified as Kumar alias Baajaka (23), Manja alias Sangappa (24), Krishna (40) and Vijaya Kumar (21), all of them hailing from Mysuru.
Police said they were nomads and used to set up tents on the city outskirts and carry out petty businesses such as selling soft toys, sweets and repairing stoves.
The police have seized 55 gm of gold, 1.350 kg of silver and Rs 75,000 in cash and other items from the accused.
According to police, their modus operandi was as follows: they would roam around the city and outskirts in two-wheelers and visit temples under the pretext of offering prayers and observe the hundis and gold ornaments on the idols.
They would identify the target temples and come back in the night to rob them, the police said. They used to break open the temple lock and the hundis to make away with the cash.
In less than two months, the accused robbed over 17 temples which prompted the police to form a special team to go behind this gang.
The police have detected three temple theft cases at Mico Layout, four at Electronic City, two each in Bommanahalli and K.S. Layout, and one each in Tilak Nagar, Jayanagar, J.P. Nagar, and Subramanyapura. The accused have also robbed temples on the city outskirts and in Tumakuru and Sarjapura.
A senior officer said the team of police analysed CCTV footage from a few temples and obtained clues about the gang and learnt that their modus operandi were the same in all cases.
Recently, the Mico Layout police while patrolling their area noticed these men who were trying to break into a temple. During interrogation, they admitted to their involvement in more than a dozen cases of temple thefts.
