Daijiworld Media Network - Mandya (SP)
Mandya, Sep 14: Relating to the macabre murder of three priests of Lord Arakeshwara temple here by thieves who took away money found in the boxes of offerings kept inside the temple, the police have succeeded in arresting the accused.
In a pre-dawn operation launched on Monday September 14, the police fired at the legs of the fleeing thieves and took them into custody.
The three accused were sleeping at the bus shelter situated at Sadolalu in Maddur taluk when the policemen rounded themup and asked them to surrender. But the accused attacked the police and tried to run away. The police immediately fired at their legs and arrested them. The injured accused stand admitted into the Maddur taluk hospital. A police sub-inspector and two police personnel who were injured in the attack by the accused too were admitted into hospital, sources stated.
Reportedly the thieves were living in a shed they had pltched in a desolate spot in Huligerepura in Toppanahalli Sadolalu. District superintendent of police, K Parashuram, gave this informaion.
He said that the accused were asked to surrender and warning shots were fired in the air. But the accused began to attack the police instead of surrendering. Therefore, the police had to fire at and arrest the accused, he said. He also sated that complete details of the accused would be provided soon.
"Three accused were arrested after police shot at and injured them in self-defence when they attacked our men at Sodolalu village in Maddur taluk of the district earlier in the day, while trying to escape from a bus stop," Mandya inspector B S Shivanna said.
"Accused Manju, Vijay, and Chandru were rushed to a state-run hospital at Mandya for treatment of bullet injuries in their legs," said Shivanna.
A sub-inspector and two constables were also injured in the operation and are under treatment.
The three were traced after their accomplices Abhijit and Raghu were arrested on Sunday evening at Guttalu village, where the three priests of Sri Arkeshwara Swamy temple were murdered on the September 10-11 night and cash from donation boxes looted.
The temple in question belongs to muzai department. Three priests of the temple, Ganesh (35), Prakash (36) and Anand (33), who offered puja at the temple, were sleeping inside the temple at night for the security of the temple when they were brutally killed by the thieves on Thursday night. The thieves took away only the currency notes found inside the donation boxes. They had thrown away the coins in the temple premises.
Chief minister, B S Yediyurappa, has alreaday announced compensation of five lac rupees to the families of the slain priests. State muzrai minister, Kota Srinivas Poojary, handed over the cheque to the family of the deceased on Saturday.