Police said Siddalinga Raju of Malavalli in Mandya district told his friend Shivakumar that his house had some evil effects which needed to cleansed for the betterment of the family. He also offered to perform puja to a Kali idol he had brought along.
After the family agreed, he sought gold ornaments to adorn the idol and performed the puja. Later, he covered the idol with a piece of cloth and warned the family not to remove it for eight months as it would annul the effectiveness of the puja.
Eight months later, the family found the jewellery missing. Shivakumar complained to police who arrested Raju on Friday. Eighty grams of gold ornaments, worth Rs 1.5 lakh hidden in Mandya were also recovered. He has been remanded into judicial custody for 14 days.
Published 31 January 2010, 19:25 IST