Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore

Mangalore, Jan 29: Santosh Das and alias Ghanshyam, prime accused in the Moodbidri Jain Basadi idol theft case, has been granted bail in the Kodyadka temple theft case.

The theft had occurred on June 29, 2009 and the silver crowns of Anjaneya and Ganapathi deities, idol mask and umbrella were stolen.

Though a case was registered at Moodbidri police station and investigation was conducted, initially the police were not able to make any headway.  They had stopped the investigation and submitted a closure report to the court.

However, after the theft of idols at Siddanta temple in Moodbidri last year, Santosh Das was arrested. He had confessed during interrogation that he had committed the theft at Kodyadka temple too.

The police registered an FIR, took Das into custody and continued the investigation. Though there is a law that a charge sheet should be submitted to the court within ninety days of starting the investigation, the police are yet to file the charge sheet.

Nagesh Shetty D, the defence lawyer for the suspect, cite this clause and submitted a request for bail to the suspect. The JMFC court thus granted bail to the accused.

However the suspect will have to continue to be in police lockup though he has been granted bail in this case, as he is yet to get bail for his suspected involvement in some other criminal cases.