Ayyappa ‘devotee’ nabbed for bag lifting from Nesapakkam temple

Police said that the suspect posed as a devotee and participated in a pooja in the day and later escaped with the bag of a woman. The man identified as K Senthil Kumar, 47, of Karapakkam is an ITI diploma holder. He had visited a temple in Nesapakkam where a pooja was performed on Saturday. The victim Prathiba, a resident of Pillayar Koil street, Nesapakkam had come to send off her husband Muthu Mariappan after performing the rituals to Sabarimala.

As Prathiba was busy in the rituals, Senthil Kumar escaped with the handbag which had an iPhone and Rs 1,000. When she came to know that the bag was missing, she informed the K K Nagar police.

Police while verifying the CCTV footage, found an Ayyappa devotee, walking away with a bag.

“Prathiba’s phone was switched on and the team managed to track the location. It was located in Karapakkam from where Senthil Kumar was nabbed” police said.

According to police, he had targeted a temple in Nesapakkam on November 28 and escaped with cash after breaking the hundi. Senthil was also accused of snatching a cell phone from a woman in Ashok Nagar a week earlier. Police noted that he had in the past targeted handbags of women in marriage halls and temples by getting along with the crowd.