A man who had pretended to be a night guard in New Alipore allegedly stole 19 gold bindis from the forehead of the idol at a Lokenath Baba temple in the neighbourhood earlier this week.

Sankar Rajbahar, 38, was arrested on Sunday. The gold bindis were found in the pocket of the jeans he was wearing during interrogation, police said.

Rajbahar had managed to avert the CCTV camera by approaching the temple in Block N through a bylane behind it. He allegedly prised open a window grille and entered through it late on Saturday. A few scratch marks that he sustained on his back in the process gave him away.

The theft was reported at New Alipore police station on Sunday morning.

When a scan of the CCTV footage drew a blank, the police started looking for burglars who specialised in temple thefts. “We started looking for those arrested for temple thefts and found this man as a probable suspect. We learned from his family that he worked as a night watchman,” said an officer.

During interrogation, Rajbhar confessed he had lied to his family and neighbours that he was working as a night guard while he was actually engaged in thefts and burglaries at night. He has been charged under IPC sections related to theft and trespassing and remanded in police custody till December 30.