Pune: The Pimpri Chinchwad crime branch on Saturday claimed to have solved a theft of a silver crown worth Rs 2.5 lakh from an idol in a Jain temple at Chinchwad on Feb 21. The police arrested Naresh Jain (49), a criminal on the police records, of Bhuleshwar in Mumbai and recovered the stolen crown. In the early hours of Feb 21, a silver crown of an idol of the Jain temple in Chinchwad was stolen. A crime branch team led by senior inspector Narendra Thakare examined over 200 CCTV cameras and identified a thief who stole the crown by posing as the priest. “Assistant inspector Dattatreya Gulig laid a trap in Mumbai and took Jain into custody recently,” an officer from the Pimpri Chinchwad crime branch said. He said the police recovered the stolen crown from Jain’s possession. Jain has 11 theft cases registered against him with the Mumbai police and one with the Thane police. “He used to steal valuables from Jain temples,” he said.
