Believe it or not, the series of temple thefts that took place in and around the city in the last two months were masterminded by a single man.

In a major breakthrough, the police has arrested two persons, the mastermind Mohammad Hussain Ali and his aide Shaik Hyder, and they have confessed to having committed 18 temple thefts.

The police recovered about two kg silver valuables and gold ornaments from his hideouts.

After recieving information the police arrested Mohammad Hussain Ali and Shaik Hyder from the Amberpet bus stand on Friday evening.

The 22-year-old Mohammad Hussain Ali alias Mohammad Ghouse alias Srinivas Reddy was once a run-away kid.

He later became an expert in breaking locks with just one blow. In his confession to the police, he admitted to masterminding the 18 temple thefts that had created a sensation in the city.

Congratulating the police personnel who strived hard to solve the case, Hyderabad police commissioner Anurag Sharma said, “His fingerprints matched the prints we found at the Lal Darwaza Mahankali temple, Uppuguda Hanuman temple and the Uppuguda Mahankali temple.”

“After going through the records of thefts during the the last three years and the modus operandi, we zeroed in on the suspects,” he said.

Police said the accused was earlier convicted in the Pochamma temple theft case in Malakpet in 2010 and was released in March 2012.

Before that as a teenager he was involved in several housebreaks and was sent to the juvenile home for three years.

After release from jail, he started working as a ragpicker and befriended Shaik Hyder, who was also a ragpicker and started thefts.

Mr Sharma said, “There was no intention behind his crimes. He did them as he is habituated to breaking locks.” Out of the 18 crimes he confessed, 14 took place in Hyderabad and four in Cyberabad limits, he added.

Ali did not have a house, and hence it took some time for the police to arrest him. He kept the booty with scrap dealers.

We have recovered about 2 kg silver valuables and some gold ornaments out of the 20 kg silver and 50 grams of gold reported stolen, he said.

We are confident to recover the rest of valuables and details of the receivers after interrogation, the Commissioner said.

Modus Operandi

1. Before committing offences, the offenders used to recce the area and the target during day time in disguise as rag pickers. They used a tricycle garbage carrier, pretending that they are collecting rags near the temple and observe the surroundings.

2. In early hours, between 2:00 am and 3:00 am they reach the spot and after making certain no one is around Mohammad Hussain Ali use to break the lock using an iron rod and Shaik Hyder used to give him cover.

3. Hussain Ali enters the temple and gathers the valuables in a gunny bag, meanwhile Hyder pretend like unfolding a bed sheet outside the door of the temple giving an impression that he’s spreading bed sheet in order to sleep there.

4. Within sometime Hussain Ali collects the booty in the gunny bag which they used to collect the waste and vanish away on their tricycle. In some offences they also used a two-wheeler.
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