A man was arrested on Monday in connection with the incident in which a group of unidentified men allegedly vandalised a statue of baby Jesus in a church and made off with its donation boxes near Mysuru on December 27, police said.
The incident took place at St. Mary’s Church in Periyapatna town, 60 kilometres from Mysuru, when parish priest John Paul and the staff were away after Christmas celebrations. The incident came to light when the priest returned to the church. In this connection, Fr John Paul had lodged a complaint with the Periyapatna police.
Periyapatna police inspector B Sridhar had said preliminary investigations suggested the accused broke open the door and vandalised the statue of baby Jesus and some furniture in the church. They looted a donation box and escaped with two other similar boxes.
The accused has been identified as Vishwa (24), a pourakarmika who was working in the church, and is a resident of Mahadeshwara Layout in Periyapatna town, the police said.
After the incident, Mysuru superintendent of police Seema Latkar had constituted three teams to solve the case. Addressing the media on Monday, Latkar provided details about the incident. A blue hand glove was recovered soon after the church was vandalised, Latkar said, adding that based on this, the police arrested Vishwa and interrogated him.
“Vishwa is a resident of Mahadeshwara Layout Periyapatna town. He had not received his salary for two months at the church. On Christmas, he had come to the church to talk to the Father but he couldn’t meet him. Thus, he decided to steal the money from the donation box,” Latkar said.
Latkar said the accused had stolen approximately ₹2,000-3,000 from three donation boxes. An idol of baby Jesus was placed on the table and the accused pulled the cloth under the statue hoping there could be money, and broke the idol, Latkar said.
After the incident, Latkar had visited the spot and supervised the probe. Mysuru additional superintendent of police Nandini had said, “Prima facie it appears as though they came to loot the three donation boxes. We are probing the incident from two angles (robbery and communal intention) but it does not seem to be like an attack on the church.”
A case was also registered under sections 454 (lurking house-trespass or house-breaking), 380 (theft in dwelling house), 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of Indian Penal Code at Periyapatna town police station.
