The three suspects and the vehicle seized from them at Nayapalli police station in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, July 16: Mangalore police today said Santosh Das, the main accused in the theft of antique idols from a Jain shrine at Moodbidri, about 40km from Mangalore, had been offering to surrender.

“Das alias Ghanashyam Das, 35, has called us at least three times and said he wanted to surrender. We are trying our best to trace him,” a senior official of Managlore police told The Telegraph.

Bhubaneswar police today registered a case against Das, his father-in-law Digambar Mohanty and wife Diptimayee Mohanty after they had found 1kg gold biscuits from the residence of Digambar in Sailashree Vihar.

The cops also suspect Das’s involvement in the idol theft cases in Ganjam and Balasore. “Diptimayee said Das used to keep gold biscuits at their home in Sailashree Vihar. We will arrest them once they return from transit remand,” said a senior police officer. The father and daughter duo are in Mangalore on transit remand.

Mangalore police commissioner Manish Karbikar, who was in the city today, said they had constituted special squads to arrest Das.

Fifteen idols worth several crores of rupees were stolen from Mangalore on July 5. The Mangalore police had also released a sketch of the accused based on the closed-circuit television camera footage obtained from the shrine and information shared by its monks.

Forged mark sheets

Two students have been accused of forging their Plus Two mark sheets to gain admission into engineering colleges. One of them has been taken into custody.

Action was taken on the basis of complaints lodged by the police in Bhubaneswar and Kalahandi.

During verification, OJEE officials detected that one Sajid Khan had allegedly forged his certificates to increase his marks in physics, chemistry and mathematics. A case was registered with the Airfield police station.

During interrogation, Sajid claimed that the agents of a private college had approached him to get the mark sheet tampered with as he had not secured 45 per cent, which is mandatory for admission into an engineering degree course. In the second case, the accused, identified as Pabitra Barik, had allegedly tampered with his mark sheet to get score in physics increased. “The complaint was registered at Bhawanipatna,” said OJEE secretary Priyabrata Sahoo

BPUT Students’ Protection Council has demanded an inquiry into the matter.

Bike theft

Nayapalli police yesterday arrested three vehicle thieves and seized nine two-wheelers and two cars from them. The cops said the trio were involved in a number of vehicle thefts in the city and its outskirts.

The accused, Santanu Balabantaray, 23, Reka Pattnayak, 25, and Anandi Nayak, 21, hail from Nayagarh district.

The police said all of them used to work as bus drivers and were at present living at Khandagiri.