Stolen Hanuman Idol From Tirumala Ghat Road Recovered; Visakhapatnam Man Arrested
Tirupati police recovered a stolen Hanuman idol from the Tirumala ghat road within 15 hours of the theft and arrested a Visakhapatnam man at Ongole railway station.
The Tirupati district police solved the theft of a Lord Anjaneya Swamy idol from the 7th mile along the first ghat road of Tirumala within 15 hours of the incident.
Police arrested the accused at Ongole railway station on Wednesday night.
The theft came to light after a one-foot stone idol of Lord Anjaneya went missing from the 7th mile on the down ghat road. The idol had been placed near the larger Hanuman statue by a group of devotees sometime after 2000 and was worshipped by pilgrims travelling along the ghat road, and trekking the Alipiri footpath.
According to police, CCTV footage showed a middle-aged man wearing a Govinda Mala carrying away the idol at around 3am on Wednesday. TTD vigilance and security officials noticed the theft and alerted the police, following which an investigation was launched.
Treating the case as a priority, Tirupati SP L. Subba Rayudu directed officers to trace the accused at the earliest. Police initially formed 10 special teams and later expanded the operation to 20 teams. The teams examined CCTV footage, analysed technical evidence and tracked the suspect's movements.
The accused, Jaswanth Kumar, a native of Visakhapatnam, was intercepted by the Railway Police while travelling on the Howrah Express at Ongole railway station. Tirupati police later took him into custody.
SP Subba Rayudu said the accused was being brought to Tirupati.
