Markapuram: Temple breaker arrested, gold recovered

Markapuram: The Komarole police arrested a habitual offender and temple breaker on Friday and recovered 86.5 grams of gold and some silver jewellery, announced DSP Nageswara Reddy, in a press meet held in Markapuram.

The DSP said that following the instructions of SP Siddharth Kaushal, the Prakasam police have identified 6708 major religious structures in the district, conducted security audits in all of them to identify that 161 of them are the most important prayer places. He said that they have made CC cameras installed in 632 places in this month and appoint watchmen, guards, or volunteers at 813 places by the management.

The DSP announced that they have booked 2301 bind over cases, 375 cases under security sections, and counselled 4019 persons to change behaviour. Following the suggestions of the police, the religious places established 759 defence committees with 5731 people in them, the DSP added.

The DSP said that keeping the vigil, they formed special teams to monitor the movements of old criminals. As part of the process, he explained that the Komarole SI V Sambasivaiah and his staff identified Rajupalem Mastan Vali, a native of Vadlamanu village in Kadapa district and a resident of Gopalapatnam in Visakhapatnam and took him into custody on suspicion.

In the inquiry, the police found that the accused and his father also habituated offenders and served jail terms earlier. The DSP said that they found the accused was involved in housebreakings at Komarole, Giddalur, Anakapalli, and Gopalapatnam and a temple theft at Pendurthi in Visakhapatnam district.

Nagewara Reddy said that they recovered 86.5 grams of gold and few silver jewellery from the possession of the accused and seized them for further investigation.