Gold Theft Case – Kollur Temple’s Former EO Arrested
Kundapur: L S Maruti (61), a retired executive officer of Shri Mookambika temple in Kollur was arrested by the police on Saturday evening.
The arrest was made in connection with a huge number of gold jewellery, offered from time to time by devotees, was recently found missing from the vaults of the temple.
This information was provided to mediapersons by Udupi district SP Annamalai at a media meet held in the office of the DySP here.
Dereliction of duty and indirect role in the theft have been cited as charges against him. He had served as the executive officer of the temple from 2012 to 2015 and retired last year.
The theft of jewellery is said to have taken place during his tenure. About 4.20 kgs gold had been stolen.
Except for 430 gms, most part of the gold has since been recovered. Maruti had signed the receipts for them when the donations had been received.
Shivarama Madivala, the main accused, and three others were arrested earlier. While Madivala was still in custody, three have been released on bail.
DySP Manjunath Shetty, who was present at the media meet, is heading the investigation team.