AP: Priest Arrested for Replacing Temple Gold with Imitation Ornaments
Police tracked and arrested the accused through technical surveillance and recovered all the original ornaments, weighing 190 grams.
Vijayawada: Kollipara police have arrested a temple priest who allegedly replaced gold ornaments adorning the presiding deity with imitation jewellery and absconded with the originals worth Rs.20 lakh. The stolen ornaments were recovered within a week of the complaint.
According to Tenali Rural CI Umesh, the accused, Pannala Durga Jayaram alias Jayaram Sharma of Hanumanpalem village, had been serving as the priest of Sri Kasi Annapurna Sametha Visweshwara Swamy Temple for over two years. During preparations for Kartika month, villagers noticed that the ornaments on the deity appeared fake and lodged a complaint after failing to reach the priest.
Acting on the direction of Guntur SP Vakul Jindal, and under the supervision of Tenali DSP B. Janardhan, Kollipara SI Koteswara Rao and his team launched an investigation. Findings revealed that Jayaram, motivated by a desire for luxury, had gradually replaced the gold ornaments with duplicates over a period of ten months.
Police tracked and arrested the accused through technical surveillance and recovered all the original ornaments, weighing 190 grams. Jayaram was produced before the Tenali magistrate and remanded to judicial custody.
Villagers expressed happiness over the swift recovery of the stolen jewellery, while SP Vakul Jindal commended the investigating team for their prompt and effective action.
