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

A man offered prayers at a temple before allegedly stealing Rs 15000 from the donation box in Maharashtras Thane city on Wednesday morning the police said according to the PTIThe CCTV cameras have captured the man visiting the Hanuman temple at Kopri near the railway station around 830 am the Thane police said as per the PTIHe prayed before the deity and then cleaned out the donation box which had nearly Rs 15000 cash an official said citing the footage that the police scanned laterThe 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 timeHowever the man managed to escapeThe Kopri police have registered a case and a probe is underway the official addedIn an another incident the police have arrested four persons and claimed to have busted a gang involved in stealing motorbikes in Bhiwandi area of Maharashtras Thane district reported news agency PTIEleven 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 PTIHe said there were a number of cases of motorbike theft in BhiwandiThe police worked on several leads including CCTV footage as well as intelligence and technical inputs the official saidOver the last couple of days the police arrested four persons he saidThe police seized 11 stolen motorbikes valued at Rs 335 lakh from their possession the official saidMeanwhile the police in Maharashtras Thane city have arrested three Nepalese men in connection with a theft at jewellery shop during which gold worth Rs 32 crore was stolen police told PTI on TuesdayThe crime branch officials arrested Madhav Giri Dinesh alias Sagar Rawal and Deepak Bhandari all hailing from Nepal on August 20 an official told PTIThe police managed to recover 550 gm of the stolen gold valued at Rs 33 lakh from the trio he saidA 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 32 crore Deputy Commissioner of Police Crime Shivraj Patil told PTIDuring the probe the police relied on the CCTV footage from the area and technical analysis which revealed that the accused were from Nepal he saidPolice teams launched a manhunt in Uttar Pradeshs Lucknow Varanasi and also searched in the districts bordering Nepal and finally apprehended the trio in one of the border areas the official told PTIWhile three members of the gang have been arrested seven more are suspected to be involved in the crime he saidwith PTI inputs