Vijayawada: Thieves targeted only private temples, says report

Vijayawada: The six-member gang that resorted to thefts in various temples in Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts in the past few months has committed the offenses only in private temples but not the ones managed by the endowments department, said P Durga, assistant commissioner of endowments at Visakhapatnam in a report submitted to the endowments commissioner P Arjuna Rao.

While thanking the senior police officials for nabbing the accused, Durga said on Monday that the department has already instructed those managing such temples to take all the necessary measures to prevent such incidents from being recurred. Closed circuit (CC) cameras need to be installed and security personnel should be deployed, particularly during nights, she said.

The local temple committees and the department, too, will take all the necessary measures to check such incidents from being repeated, be it in the private temples or those managed by the department, the assistant commissioner stated.

The Anjaneya Swamy temple at Nallajerla in West Godavari district, in which the temple hundi was robbed on Saturday night, is also being managed by a private committee.

Assistant commissioner D Ramesh on Monday informed the commissioner that the accused were caught within 24 hours as the CC cameras are working well. According to local residents, only Rs 5,000 was there in the hundi when it was robbed by the duo—both of them were juvenile delinquents.

Viswanath, assistant commissioner of endowments at Chittoor, said in a report to Arjun Rao that some unidentified persons damaged the Nandi idol located on the precincts of the Lord Abhayanjaneya Swamy temple also managed by a committee at Agangalam of Gangadhara Nellore mandal on Saturday and the temple committee members lodged a complaint with the local police. Taking a serious note of the incident, Chittoor SP Senthil Kumar is personally investigating the case, the assistant commissioner informed Arjun Rao.