Marine Drive man dresses up like monk to steal gold chains from Jain temples in Bhayandar

The accused wore thin white clothes, to look the part as a monk, to enter the homes of Jain community members for seeking blessings and to see their temples. He then engaged the owners in random conversations to divert their attention and asked them to bring tea or water

MUMBAI: Wearing a muhapatti (holy face mask) and white attire, a 28-year-old fraud monk, a resident of the posh Marine Drive area, stole valuables, including a 12-gram gold chain worth ₹70,000, from the home temples of Jain community in Bhayandar, which has a significant presence of Jain community.

Marine Drive man dresses up like monk to steal gold chains from Jain temples in Bhayandar

The police arrested the accused, identified as Naresh Agarchand Jain, on Wednesday after he was caught red-handed on CCTV while stealing a gold chain from one of the temples.

The accused wore thin white clothes, to look the part as a monk, to enter the homes of Jain community members for seeking blessings and to see their temples. He then engaged the owners in random conversations to divert their attention and asked them to bring tea or water. Within seconds, he would swiftly lift gold chains and other valuables from their temples and leave. Police sources said he stole valuables worth lakhs from the Jain community.

The police scanned through the CCTVs and followed the accused from Bhayandar station to Marine Lines, where he was arrested with valuables.

According to officers from Navghar police station, on Saturday a resident staying in the Balaji Complex, located in Bhayandar West, approached the police claiming that a 12-gram gold chain was stolen from his home temple by a monk who entered his house wearing white attire to see his home temple.

The complainant, who is a businessman, told the police that the monk saw the door of the complainant open and entered their house asking whether he could seek blessings and see the temple of their house. Being religious, the complainant did not refuse the monk, however, after he left, the complainant noticed that the chain from the temple was missing.

The police officers registered a case of theft, scanned through the CCTV of the building and spotted the man in religious attire. Through traffic and private CCTVs in shops and buildings, the police followed the accused to Bhayandar station.

“We followed Jain, who boarded a Churchgate train and got down at Marine Lines station. We then laid a trap near his house at Marine Drive and arrested him as soon as he tried to enter his building,” said a police officer from Navghar police station.

The police arrested Jain for theft and found out that he is a repeated offender and has cases of thefts registered against him at various police stations across the city, including LT Marg, MRA Marg, Kandivali, Borivali and Bhayander police stations for similar offences.

“The accused used to target the houses of people from his community and ask to take blessings from their home temples. Once the owner of the house left to get water or tea, the accused robbed gold from the temples and left,” said the officer.