CHENNAI: The Chennai city police on Sunday arrested a temple priest in Aminjikarai for swindling gold jewellery –- weighing a total of 90 sovereigns -- of more than 25 women.

The accused has been identified as Anandan, 28, who is a priest at Muthukarumari Amman temple in Aminjikarai.

"Anandan has been a temple priest for at least eight years. Over the years, he had gained trust of the people in the neighborhood. In the last few months, some women met him on different occasions seeking his help to solve their marital issues, issues related to birth, debts and others," said a police officer.

Anandan asked them to meet him with gold jewellery, coconuts and flowers to perform a puja and thereby to purify them from evil spirits.

Later, they met him with jewellery and other items. He placed the jewellery in containers and kept them in the temple. After 21 days, he asked each them to give him 150 rice grains and sent them back with the containers.

He asked them to do puja for another 21 days and open the containers after that. When the women finally opened their respective containers, they found that the gold ornaments were missing.

When they approached Anandan again, he told them that they had not performed puja properly and that's why the jewellery had vanished.

Based on the complaint of the women, the Aminjikarai police registered a case and arrested Anandan.

Preliminary enquiries revealed that he had pledged the jewellery with a pawn broker.

