Three persons allegedly involved in temple thefts across three States were arrested by the Badvel police on Friday.
N. Adinarayana (35), N. Janaiah (22) and N. Chinna Venkatesu (27) were eportedly wanted in several cases pertaining to 80 temple thefts across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka in the last five years.
With instances of temple thefts witnessing a spike in Badvel and surrounding areas in the last few weeks, the police found something fishy and checked for regular offenders on the prowl. Based on field level inputs, the police zeroed in on the trio when they were moving suspiciously near Narasimha Swamy temple at Sagileru and arrested them.
Modus operandi
The modus operandi of the accused was to move around villages as snake charmers and sell wigs for women. In the process they notice public movement in the vicinity of temples and break into them by night.
Badvel Rural police said the accused were wanted in several cases in all the four Rayalaseema districts, besides in Mahabubnagar district of Telangana and bordering districts of Karnataka.
The police recovered ₹7,850 in cash, nose ring worth ₹2,500, a metal idol of a goddess and tools used to break into temples.
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