Mangaluru: Police commissioner S Murugan held a press meet at his office here on March 10.
Addressing the mediapersons Murugan said that on February 24 night, miscreants pelted stones at the glass frame of the cubicle housing an idol of Mother Mary, at St Joseph Vaz prayer centre Paneer, Kotekar Village and damaged the glass cubicle. In this connection a case was registered in the Ullal police station under crime number 62/2015 U/Sec 427, 295 IPC.
The investigation of the case was taken up by ACP South on the instructions issued by the commissioner of police. A special team was constituted under the leadership of Police Inspector of Ullal station Savithru Tej P D along with PSI Bharati G, PSI Rejendra B and staff Mohan, Kamalaksha, Lingaraju, Prashant, Ravichandra to crack the case. The team made all the efforts to nab the culprit in the above case.
During the investigation, based on credible information, the suspect Anand (30), a resident of Ukkuda, Kinya Village was taken into custody for investigation. After thorough investigation, Anand revealed that he was employed in the church, because of low salary he had left the job recently.
On February 24 after consuming alcohol in the graveyard, which is adjacent to the prayer hall, he pelted stones at the idol. On March 9, Anand was arrested and sent to judicial custody.
Murugan also said that it was a random act and such cases are very tough to crack down. The team led by ACP has done a wonderful job and has been suitably rewarded for successfully cracking the case.
He also recalled that the District minister In-charge has urged religious institutions to install CCTV cameras, the present cameras are of very poor quality and it is difficult to identify the culprits. Since most of the crimes take place in the dark, the poor quality cameras are not able to record a clear picture. We have planned to install 20 CCTV cameras in the city and the Mangaluru city corporation has come forward to provide part of the funds. A tender has been called and the work to install the CCTV cameras will start soon. In addition the government is also installing 150 CCTV cameras in and around the city, the project is in the final stage of approval where Rs 2 crore earmarked for the same. The CCTV cameras and networking will be monitored by the police. If the government will provide more funds we can install upto 300 – 400 CCTV cameras, he added.
When asked about the stabbing cases in Ullal and the culprits not being arrested yet, Murugan said that we are putting all our efforts to find out the culprits. We cannot trace all the hundred cases, infact we are trying to control the crime.
Speaking on the church attack he said that when St Joseph Vaz prayer hall was attacked, there were mixed feelings in the minds of the people. Some had given communal colour to the incident, which lead to disturbance in the society. We are very alert in such cases so that there will be peace and harmony will be maintained in the society.