Man Arrested From Odisha’s Nayagarh For Stealing Valuables From 47 Temples In 3 States

Bhubaneswar: Jeypore Police in Odisha’s Koraput district has arrested a man, who had allegedly stolen valuables from 47 temples, from Nayagarh.

Speaking to media persons on Saturday, Jeypore SDPO Ankit Verma said the arrested man has been identified Ghanshaym Das alias Prakash Kumar Sahu alias Santosh Kumar Das of Itamati in Nayagarh district.

The temple thefts committed by Ghanshyam came to light during investigation into a complaint of theft filed by authorities of Kanaka Parameswari Temple in Jeypore on February 3. They had alleged that 12 gram of gold ornaments, 312 gram of silverware and Rs 21,000 in cash were looted. The temple’s CCTV hard drive had also been taken away by the thief.

Following investigation into the complaint on the basis of CCTV footages from the locality by the Jeypore Police, Ghanshyam was arrested from his house in Nayagarh. The police also recovered the silverware and Rs 2 lakh from his possession. But gold ornaments or CCTV hard drive were not found. The silverware recovered from the accused has been handed over to the temple authorities.

“Ghanshyam started stealing the valuables at the age of 18 years from Andhra Pradesh. In the last 27 years, 45-year-old Ghanshyam has stolen valuables from 47 temples across three states of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Karnataka,” the SDPO said.

Of the total theft cases against, 24 were reported from Andhra Pradesh, 14 from Odisha and nine from Karnataka.

“With the help of some iron tools, he can break open any lock. Interestingly, he used to target the temples located in crowded places. He does not have any gang and operated alone,” he added.