Thaindian News

Patiala (Punjab), Oct 21 (IANS) Technology in the hands of god proved to be the nemesis for a ‘religious-minded’ criminal in Punjab when he was caught with the help of CCTV cameras, police said Wednesday. The CCTV footage revealed that the criminal had looted a bank and had then made an offering with the stolen money to a Hindu temple here.
Punjab police officials told IANS here Wednesday that Vicky, a criminal who was involved with an armed gang which had looted banks in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, was caught after CCTV cameras showed him looting a bank and subsequently the temple CCTV camera showed him offering a huge sum of money at the popular Kali Bari temple here.

The information about Vicky’s criminal activities as well his religious bent came from one of his accomplices who was arrested earlier in October.

“We had busted this 11-member inter-state gang of bank robbers on Oct 11. On that day, we arrested six of the robbers while five others managed to escape. The police also recovered Rs.28.5 lakh in cash, out of the total of Rs.32 lakh stolen from a Haryana bank, from their possession,” Patiala’s district Police Chief R.S. Khatra told IANS.

The temple’s CCTV clearly showed that Vicky came inside with a bag and continued to pull out several currency notes and put them in the offering box relentlessly. He continued to do this for several minutes even as other devotees made their offerings and moved on.

Vicky has now told the police that he had given Rs.350,000 out of the Rs.32 lakh looted from the Haryana bank as an offering to the temple.

Though the temple management have shown an inclination to return the money to the police, Punjab police officials have still not decided whether they should take the money from the temple.

“We will not take the money back from the temple now,” said Khatra.