VIJAYAWADA: The city police arrested four persons accused in housebreaking cases and a temple thief on Friday. Cops recovered 225 grams of gold ornaments, 8.8 kgs of silver worth Rs 15 lakhs and Rs 10,000 cash. Later, they were sent to police custody and will be produced in court on Monday. Central Crime Station (CCS) police took them into custody while patrolling various locations across the city. After the interrogation, all the five confessed to their crime.
The four accused, belonging to two separate gangs, are repeat offenders and similar house breaking cases filed against them in various police stations across the State. Joint city police commissioner (JCP) B V Ramana Kumar said the accused Nunna Ashok (22), Gullapalli Upendra(24), P Balakrishna (23) and Dasari Yesobu (25) turned to petty crimes for easy money. Targeting mostly locked houses, they used to break into houses and do away with gold, ornaments and cash.
“In September, both Ashok and Upendra broke one house in Ramachandra Nagar and other at Ramavarappdu and decamped gold. The same is the case with Balakrishna and Yesobu. They even committed similar crimes in rural areas,” said Ramana Kumar. Pretending to be a devotee, the fifth accused Eemani Rambabu alias Rampavan entered temples and used to run away with gold and silver ornaments ornaments of the deity.
He committed eight similar crimes in various temples in Vijayawada in past three months. The police zeroed in on the accused based on finger prints collected from Lord Anjeneya temple in Satyanarayanapuram at the time of the robbery. He used to visit the temple several times before committing the crime. After diverting the attention of the priests, he used to abscond with the valuables. Not alone in Vijayawada, Rambabu also committed crimes in 23 temples across the state and was arrested several times.