Maharashtra: Man prays at temple, cleans out donation box in Thane

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A man offered prayers at a temple before allegedly stealing Rs 15,000 from the donation box in Maharashtra's Thane city on Wednesday morning, the police said, according to the PTI.

The CCTV cameras have captured the man visiting the Hanuman temple at Kopri near the railway station around 8.30 am, the Thane police said, as per the PTI.

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He prayed before the deity and then cleaned out the donation box, which had nearly Rs 15,000 cash, an official said citing the footage that the police scanned later.

The crime came to light after a woman devotee found the 'hundi' broken and raised an alarm, said Deepak Shelar, a journalist, who was at the temple at the time.

However, the man managed to escape.

The Kopri police have registered a case and a probe is underway, the official added.

In an another incident, the police have arrested four persons and claimed to have busted a gang involved in stealing motorbikes in Bhiwandi area of Maharashtra's Thane district, reported news agency PTI.

Eleven stolen motorbikes have also been seized from the possession of the accused, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone II), Bhiwandi, Navnath Dhavle told reporters on Tuesday evening, reported PTI.

He said there were a number of cases of motorbike theft in Bhiwandi.

The police worked on several leads including CCTV footage, as well as intelligence and technical inputs, the official said.

Over the last couple of days, the police arrested four persons, he said.

The police seized 11 stolen motorbikes valued at Rs 3.35 lakh from their possession, the official said.

Meanwhile, the police in Maharashtra's Thane city have arrested three Nepalese men in connection with a theft at jewellery shop during which gold worth Rs 3.2 crore was stolen, police told PTI on Tuesday.

The crime branch officials arrested Madhav Giri, Dinesh alias Sagar Rawal, and Deepak Bhandari, all hailing from Nepal, on August 20, an official told PTI.

The police managed to recover 550 gm of the stolen gold, valued at Rs 33 lakh from the trio, he said.

A gang of miscreants allegedly broke into a jewellery shop in the main market area of Ulhasnagar town on June 27 and decamped with 6 kg of gold jewellery worth Rs 3.2 crore, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Shivraj Patil told PTI.

During the probe, the police relied on the CCTV footage from the area and technical analysis, which revealed that the accused were from Nepal, he said.

Police teams launched a manhunt in Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow, Varanasi and also searched in the districts bordering Nepal and finally apprehended the trio in one of the border areas, the official told PTI.

While three members of the gang have been arrested, seven more are suspected to be involved in the crime, he said.

(with PTI inputs)