Three vintage idols hid in an almirah in a suspicious method at a temple in Nagapattinam district in Tamil Nadu had been confiscated, the state’s Idol Wing CID stated on Thursday.
Following a tip-off, the Idol Wing sleuths searched the almirah within the Pannaka Parameswara Swamy temple at Panna Road, Thirukkuvalai Taluk, Nagapattinam, and located three bronze idols of Valli measuring 38.5 cm in top and weighing 7.3 kg, Bhuvaneswari Amman of 30 cm in top and weighing 6.2 kg and Thirugnana Sambanthar 43 cm in top and weighing 9.4 kg.
The crew led by Balamurugan, further superintendent of police, IW CID Central Zone, Trichy, verified the temple information and located no point out of those idols within the registry.
The manager officer of the temple was unaware of the presence of the idols. He advised the particular crew that there was no probability of the idols belonging to the temple as they had been by no means worshipped on the shrine.
He needed the police crew to analyze the case. Following his submission, the crew seized the three idols and based mostly on the criticism of sub-inspector Thandayuthapani, the wing registered a case to hint the temples from the place these idols had been eliminated and stored within the almirah at Pannaka Parameswara Swamy temple, a launch stated. In keeping with an knowledgeable, the three unaccounted idols are high-value ones relationship again to the Cholas of the twelfth to fifteenth century AD. Inspector Indira Kumari has been entrusted with the duty of investigating the case.
The seized idols had been produced earlier than a particular courtroom in Kumbakonam and remanded on Wednesday. “The Investigating Officer is planning to examine if the pictures of the unaccounted idols can be found on the Indo-French Institute, Pondicherry,” the discharge stated.
DGP, Idol Wing CID, Ok Jayanth Murali appreciated the crew and promised a particular reward in the event that they recognized the temples from the place they had been stolen. The wing has approached the Hindu Spiritual and Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) division for figuring out and assigning the idols to the temples.
Just lately, a probe by the Idol Wing CID police into the theft of a Ganesh idol from the identical temple stolen 50 years in the past led to the prospect discovery of 11 vintage idols that had been stolen from the shrine. Apparently, the temple workers had been unaware of the theft till the officers of Idol Wing reached the temple and started the investigation.
The stolen Ganesh idol was traced to the Norton Simon Museum, USA. Eleven different idols viz: Somaskandar, Chandrasekhara Amman, Devi, Astiradevar, Pidari Amman, Navagraha Surya, Boghasakthiamman, dancing Sambandhar, Chandrasekhar with Chandrasekhar Amman, standing Chandrasekhar and standing Vinayakar, had been stolen over 50 years in the past.
The Devi idol was lately traced to Sotheby’s, New York which had acquired the idol between 1970 and 1973 and lately bought the identical for $50,000.