The police on Saturday arrested a person on the charge of being involved in several temple thefts and recovered gold ornaments worth ₹10.5 lakh from him.

Speaking to reporters here, Superintendent of Police Siddharth Kaushal said E.Rambabu from Guntur had struck at 20 temples-14 in Prakasam, four in Guntur and two in Krishna districts.

In the past, he was allegedly involved in similar thefts in Hyderabad. Mr. Kaushal said the police custody of the accused, now in judicial custody, had been sought to make more recoveries. A preliminary investigation had revealed he was involved in another 20 cases of temple thefts.

The SP said the accused used to divert the attention of priests to steal valuables from temples.