Chennai: A 35-year-old priest was arrested for stealing gold jewellery and silver articles from a house in JJ Nagar, where he had been performing puja regularly. The JJ Nagar police recovered 32 sovereigns of gold jewellery and 4.374 kg of silver articles from the accused and remanded him in judicial custody.The complainant, Aniruddha Knight, 46, a Bharatanatyam artiste and resident of Mogappair East, maintained a prayer room with idols at her residence and conducted Bharatanatyam classes. Priyadharshan, a resident of Villivakkam, was visiting her house every morning and evening since Jan this year to perform pujas.According to police, Priyadharshan performed the rituals at the house on the night of July 1 and left as usual. The next morning, Aniruddha Knight entered the prayer room and found that a gold serpent ornament was missing. A further inspection revealed that the locker containing valuables had been opened and gold jewellery and silver articles stolen.The missing property included gold ornaments such as a Perumal kavacham, gold coins, gold chains and a gold sacred thread, along with silver ritual articles, including a silver plate, a rose-water sprinkler, a silver necklace, a silver serpent idol, a silver bar, a coin garland and a wrist ornament.Based on her complaint, JJ Nagar police registered a case, scanned CCTV footage and arrested Priyadharshan.The accused had been pilfering gold jewellery and silver articles from the house in small quantities during his visits over the past few months. Police recovered 32 sovereigns of gold jewellery and 4.374 kg of silver articles from his possession.Priyadharshan was later remanded in judicial custody.
