Thief who targeted temples held after encounter

Varanasi: Notorious thief, who kept police on toes for past two months by targeting temples and houses for burglary, was caught following an exchange of fire with Nagra police near Kharuav pond in Ballia district, late Saturday night. Apart from a firearm, police also recovered stolen silver from him. The accused was identified as Rudal Natt.Ballia's ASP (North) Dinesh Kumar Shukla said that while busy in night patrolling near Kharuanv pond, Nagra police noticed a suspicious person and signalled him to stop around midnight. When he tried to flee by turning back, police started chasing him. Seeing himself surrounded by police, he fired at the police party and in retaliatory action by police, suffered a bullet injury in the leg. After recovering a firearm, cartridges and 63.43 grams of silver from him, police rushed Natt to the hospital. During interrogation, he confessed that he stole a Shivling and ‘naag' (holy snake) made of silver from Sukhpura Budhwa temple on Jan 4 night. He also stole a water pump from Bangla Chatti in Gadwar on Jan 11, broke the lock, and stole an inverter battery, a gas cylinder and several other articles from the composite school of Sawan village on Dec 17 night.
He had also stolen the crown and gold nose ring from the idol at old Durga temple, along with money from the donation box on Nov 14, night.