NewsKarnataka-(Mangalore)
Mangalore: Another accused in the Basadi theft was produced before the JMFC Court at Moodbidri.
The city police on Monday produced SubashSancheti, a leading jeweler from Durg in Chhattisgarh state. He had been picked up from Durg on Saturday in connection with the theft at the Jain repository at Siddantha Bhavan on the Guru Basadi premises at Moodbidri, some 35km from here. The court has remanded Subash in to police custody up to August 14 for further questioning.
R Ravikumar, assistant commissioner of police, Mangalore north division, who was part of the team that arrested Subash, said the accused has been charged under Section 411 of IPC (dishonestly receiving stolen property). With this, the total number of arrests has gone up to four. Police had already arrested Santosh Das akas Ghanshyam Das, the main accused, his wife Deepthimayi Patnaik and her father Digambhar Mohanthy in this case.
While Santosh is in police custody till August 8, Deepthimayi and Digambhar are in judicial custody. Santosh had allegedly disposed the idols stolen from Jain Basadi at Moodbidri in the early hours of July 6, at Durg.
Ravikumar said police are yet to recover the stolen property. Santosh has disposed around seven idols there and some of them have been melted and converted in to ingots. We are trying to find out who melted the idols, he said.
Meanwhile Mangalore city police chief Manish Kharbikar told that, the case is complex in that police have not been able to recover the property despite having nabbed the main accused and knowing their links with people who receive stolen property.
Swastishree Charukeerthi Panditacharyavarya Bhattaraka swamiji of Jain Mutt, Moodbidri said two committees of leading members from Jain community are assisting police investigations from outside.