[1]Local people and committee members of the Perandur Balabhadra Devi temple in Elamakkara chased down a fraudster in cinematic fashion on Thursday for cheating temple officials by taking money with the promise of bringing in elephants for the temple festival.
The person, identified as Raygen (27) of Palluruthy, had taken Rs 50,000 from the temple committee after offering to bring three elephants including Puthankulangara Padmanabhan for the festival that was scheduled to begin on Thursday.
Raygen introduced himself as Santhosh, an elephant agent, in front of the temple committee. He also collected an advance of `50,000 before absconding. However, he was still reachable on the phone and continued to promise the committee that he would bring the elephants to the temple on the day of the festival.
“We tried calling him from Thursday morning, but he did not take our calls. So we went to his house in Palluruthy and brought him to the temple in Perandur,” said Sarath Lal, a member of the temple committee.
Raygen attempted to escape from the temple by jumping into the Perandur canal. However, it was impossible to swim in the canal as it was filled with mud and he was caught.
The Kalamassery police arrived on the scene later and arrested him. They handed him over to the police, where Raygen now resides.
According to the police Raygen had cheated many temple and church committees across the state in a similar manner.
The festival took place after the Balabhadra Devi temple committee brought in an elephant called Gajendran from the Cochin devaswom.
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