Priest arrested for looting gold jewellery in the guise of performing puja

Gold ornaments worth Rs. 21 lakh recovered

Hunsur: Bilikere Police have arrested a priest on charges of looting gold jewellery in the guise of performing puja and have recovered 456 grams gold jewellery worth Rs. 21 lakh from him.

The arrested is 28-year-old Manu, a priest at Chowdeshwari Temple in Sathigrama of K.R. Nagar taluk. The priest used to convince couples to perform puja to their gold jewellery so that they would be blessed with a baby boy and allegedly loot the gold jewellery.

In the first week of June 2020, the priest, who had been to Uyigowdanahalli village in Hunsur taluk, went to the house of one Ningappa and told him to get a puja performed to the gold jewellery in his house so that he would be blessed with a baby boy which would also bring prosperity to the house. After convincing Ningappa, the priest fixed a date for the puja.

On the puja day, Ningappa, not only brought his gold jewellery, but also brought gold jewellery of his relatives Basappa, Shivalingappa, Puttappa, Bharathi, Sheela and Deepa, residing in his village and also the jewellery of another relative Santosh of Hunsur, all weighing 456 grams and worth Rs. 21 lakh. Ningappa then got the puja performed.

After performing puja, priest Manu poured rice grains on a towel, placed the gold jewellery in it, wrapped the towel and kept it in the almirah at Ningappa’s house besides asking him not to unwrap the towel till Ayudha Puja day and also told him to perform puja every day. The priest then left the house. 

He (priest) again came back to Ningappa’s house at about 8.30 pm on the same day and told Ningappa that he had left his clothes and puja materials in the room and went to the room, where he is said to have exchanged the gold and rice wrapped towel with a similar one and left the house.

Ningappa, his family members and relatives, as told by the priest performed puja everyday till Ayudha Puja day and when they opened the wrapped towel kept in the almirah, they found only rice grains and the gold jewellery missing. Shocked over this, Ningappa and his relatives immediately lodged a complaint at Bilikere Police Station.

Bilikere Police, who registered a case, swung into action. Following directions from SP C.B. Ryshyanth, ASP Shivakumar and supervised by Dy.SP K.S. Sundaraj, Circle Inspector K.G. Poovaiah and In-charge Circle Inspector Ravikumar, Sub-Inspector Jayaprakash-led team succeeded in nabbing the accused.

The Police team, on Oct. 27 at about 6 am, nabbed priest Manu at K.R. Nagar Bus Stand and brought him to the Police Station and interrogated him during which Manu is said to have confessed of committing the crime and also told the Police that he had pledged the gold jewellery with pawn brokers and finance companies at Hunsur, Mysuru, K.R. Nagar and other places. Based on his information, the Police have recovered 456 grams gold jewellery.

Bilikere SI Jayaprakash, ASI Swaminayak and staff M.D. Thammanna, H.N. Aruna, Prasanna Kumar, G.S. Satish, G.S. Ravi, T. Mahadeva, Prasad, Govinda and Chikkalingu, took part in the operation.