New Delhi: The Delhi police have arrested a drug addict and a school dropout in connection with the theft in a Catholic church in New Delhi.
The police said Harvinder Singh Suri, 42, was caught on CCTV breaking open the donation box located below a Mother Mary statue at St Kuriakose Elias Chavara Church in the early hours of May 23. The Syro-Malabar church is located at Hari Nagar in west Delhi.
Dependra Pathak, a police officer, said his department had formed special teams to hunt the culprit, besides putting the entire west Delhi police force on alert. “More than 100 suspects were rounded up and all police station records were scrutinized,” he said.
Suri was arrested after the teams conducted several raids on the basis of local intelligence.
During interrogation, Suri revealed he was earlier involved in similar thefts at various religious institutions. He had a typical modus operandi. He would first pose as a devotee and sneak into the shrine. He would hide until priests closed the gates and then break open locks of donation boxes, The Times of India reported.
He had done a recce of the church in Hari Nagar. He targeted the box kept outside the building below the statue as it contained the most amount of money. It would also be easier for him to get away if he was caught during the theft.
On the day of the incident, he entered the church during prayer time. He hid himself around the premises and then sneaked to the statue. When he saw no one was around, he broke the lock of the donation box and took the money. He claimed that there was around 200 rupees in the box and he had spent it on drugs. Suri had earlier been jailed for theft. Police are probing whether he was involved in other cases of theft at shrines.