Another temple burglary case was reported in Ankamma temple of Andhra's Chittoor district, however, in this case, CCTV footage helped the police nab the criminals within two days. After a spate of alleged temple attacks over the months at religious places, the Andhra government had installed extensive surveillance cameras. The same move helped the Chittoor district police nab the two thieves involved in the Ankamma temple burglary.
The arrested thieves have been identified as Tupakula Venkatesh (21) from Venkatapuram in Satyavedu mandal and Chinna (25) from Manellore of Gummadipudi taluka in Tamil Nadu. On receiving a complaint from Allapugunta villagers about the burglary at the Ankamma temple, located in Satyavedu mandal, the police looked at the CCTV footage and zeroed in on some old thieves registered in Nagalapuram police station.
The police reportedly received a tipoff at 7 am on Friday that the suspects are at RB Family Dhaba located at the border between Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and apprehended them. "On interrogating them, they confessed to committing thefts at Kotamitta Colony in Satyavedu mandal Gandhi Road," a police official told IANS.
The police also recovered 32 grams of stolen gold ornaments from the Allapugunta temple and another 12 grams gold related to two more cases from the accused. According to the police, the seized gold is worth Rs 2 lakh.
"Because of the CCTV cameras installed in all temples, we managed to nab the thieves within 2-3 days of receiving the complaint," said an official.
As earlier reported, just in the year 2020 there were 228 cases of temple attacks in Andhra Pradesh. Since then, the police had increased surveillance surrounding the shrines. For the arrangement of CCTV cameras, police had mapped about 2,600 temples across the state and issued notices to the temples to arrange CCTV cameras. Accordingly several temples had set up the cameras. Apart from cameras, police patrolling around the temples was also increased.
(With IANS inputs)