Nandula Siddhartha Sharma addiction to PUBG cost him his job as a priest a year ago. Nandula Siddhartha Sharma addiction to PUBG cost him his job as a priest a year ago.

Some work hard while others take shortcuts to lead a luxurious life. After losing his job as a priest, this 19-year-old chose to steal high-end bicycles to earn money fast.

Nandula Siddhartha Sharma’s addiction to PUBG (Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds) cost him his job as a priest a year ago. Due to pressure from home against his addiction, he moved out around the same time. And to make quick money, he started stealing high-end bicycles.

He targeted expensive bicycles parked at homes and apartments in the neighbourhood and pretended to have received them as gifts as a temple priest. He tried to sell them all for a nominal price of Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000 under the guise of charity.

The bicycles were from brands such as Ridley Cordis, Gang, Lumala, Milton NEXTRO, KROSS, Hero, Hercules Roadeo Hannibal, and Tata Strider, etc.

Malkajgiri police, who took up the investigation, stumbled upon 31 cases of bicycle thefts out of which owners of only 15 have been identified. Since he was remanded in judicial custody, police will now take his custody for further probe and identify the owners.

Siddhartha earned around Rs 70,000 by selling bicycles without raising any suspicion. “We have detected 16 cases so far. We will be willing to give away the cycles to real owners if they could prove their ownership,” Y Narasimha Reddy, assistant commissioner of Police, Malkajgiri told indianexpress.com.

He was arrested in a case of theft of a ‘Hero Sprint Pro-KIXS 29 ER Black and Blue Color Bi-Cycle’. Based on a complaint, Malkajgiri police had registered a case under section 380 of IPC. During the investigation, police came across similar complaints and cases registered in various police stations of Neredmet, Kushaiguda, Nacharam, apart from the one registered at Malkajgiri.

Of the 16 detected cases, seven are in Kushaiguda police station, four are in Neredmet police station, one in Nacharam police station, and four in Malkajgiri police station.

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