RAIPUR: For over twelve years, a thief in Durg district, about 40 km west of Raipur, has broken into temples to steal only from donation boxes, leaving other valuables untouched and vanishing without a trace.
The accused, 45-year-old Yashwant Upadhya, was arrested after his last theft at a Jain temple on the outskirts of Durg. He described his robberies as an ‘act of vengeance against god’, blaming Him for a disease that he claimed had “badly ruined” his life.
Upadhya, who served a jail sentence in 2012 in an assault case, told the police he is HIV-positive and had been persistently praying to god for recovery but saw no sign of improvement.
The Durg police told The New Indian Express that the accused have been undergoing treatment for it.
“He claimed to have contracted the virus while in jail during 2011-12. The accused met other criminals and picked-up burglary tricks in prison. After his release from jail, he began stealing only cash from temples,” said a senior police officer.
He was resentful towards God, believing he became HIV-positive through no fault of his own. To vent his anger, he decided to target temples and steal money from donation offerings.
The accused told the police he would conduct a recce of the temple before committing the theft, travelling only on his scooter, which he parked at a distance before changing his clothes.
Inside the temple, he broke open donation boxes, took the cash, and quietly slipped out to his scooter, where he changed clothes again before fleeing home. He carefully chose lanes and narrow streets instead of main roads to avoid CCTV cameras.
He told the police he had stolen money from about a dozen temples but later admitted to the media that the number could be higher, as he could not remember all of them.
A joint team of Anti-Crime and Cyber Unit and Nevai police station however secured vital clues scanning the CCTV footage while capturing the routes and identified the accused with the help of installed cameras at residences and shops. The accused confessed to the crime during interrogation.