PUNE: The Pune rural police on Monday claimed to have detected over 20 thefts at temples in different cities of the state, with the arrest of three of a gang, comprising two women and a man.
The police have recovered gold and silver ornaments as well as a stolen van, collectively worth Rs12 lakh, from the trio. The male arrested suspect, Shahrukh Pathan (24) of Purandar taluka, is a vehicle thief on the records of the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad police. “The arrested women are Pathan’s wife and her cousin,” additional superintendent of police (SP-Pune rural) Milind
Mohite
told TOI.
Mohite said that in the early hours of January 8, some persons entered the sanctum sanctorum of Shirsai Devi temple at Shirsuphal village in Baramati taluka, some 100km from Pune city, and made off with gold and silver ornaments, lamps and speakers, collectively worth over Rs1.2 lakh. “The theft came to light around 5am, when the priest of the temple,
Vaibhav Kshirsagar
, reached for the morning prayers. He immediately alerted the sarpanch and the police,” said the SP.
He added that there were CCTV cameras on the premises, but the footage was not clear as the theft took place at night. “Police inspector (PI) Mahesh Dhavan and his team checked over 65 piecesof footage from neighbouring villages and ascertained the van used by the trio,” said Mohite.
After the police obtained the registration number of the van, they found that it had been stolen from Pimpri on December 4. “With the help of technical investigation, our team got the information that the suspects were in Kolhapur district. We laid a trap and took the trio into custody,” Mohite said.
During questioning, the gang admitted to its involvement in the theft at Shirsai Devi temple. “They also admitted to having stolen ornaments from temples in Satara, Kolhapur, Beed, Osmanabad, Nagpur and Wardha districts,” said the top cop.
Assistant police inspector (API) Yogesh Langute told TOI, “Pathan used to steal a four-wheeler before targeting any temple. The gang used to travel between different areas to identify temples with a lack of security guards,” Langute said.
After identifying the temple, they would enter by breaking the locks. “The women helped Pathan shift the stolen ornaments or articles into the van,” said Langute, adding that the gang traversed most of the districts in the state for such burglaries. “We suspect that they were involved in over 50
temple thefts
. They have been remanded in police custody till January 15. Our probe is on,” said the API.
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