Mangaluru: City police on Tuesday arrested a person on the charge of damaging the glass cubical of Mother Mary statue, placed outside the shrine of St. Joseph Vaz in Deralakatte recently.

Police commissioner S. Murugan said the police managed to arrest Anand (30) from Kinya village, based on the available clues. “We felt it was a random act, probably carried out by someone in a drunken state and was possibly accompanied by another person. Hence, we formed a team of police and narrowed down our investigation based on the clues”, he said.

The topcop said that the culprit admitted to the crime during the investigation. He was working for the shrine as painter, two weeks before the incident. Due to insufficient pay for his work, he damaged the shrine, the police quoted his words. “It was an act of revenge”, Murugan pointed out.

The commissioner stressed that it was a challenge to arrest the culprit as it was a random act and there were less clues. There was no Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) camera installed at the shrine, he mentioned.

He thanked the team of police led by ACP South, inspector Savithru Tej P.D, sup inspector Bharathi G., Rajendra B. and others, for detecting the culprit in a short time.

The police said he was arrested on March 9 and was sent to judicial custody on March 10.