Chennai: Tamilnadu Idol Wing officials have seized 12 idols, of which nine are antiques, worth Rs 40 crore from a craft shop in a Mamallapuram resort on Tuesday. A person of Kashmiri origin has been arrested.
One of the idols is that of Ravana on one side and Sita on the other and this is the first time that such an artefact has been seized by the police personnel.
Following a tip off on the possession of a rare antique idol of goddess Parvathi, Idol Wing CID ADGP K Jayanth Murali formed a special team to conduct a search at the shop in the resort.
The team recovered several idols from the shop. On examination by experts, many of them were found to be antiques. The shopowner did not possess any relevant certificates from authorities, the police said.
Speaking to the media, Jayanth Murali said that the investigation began after they received information about an illegal antique idol of Parvathi being in the custody of one Javed Shah, of Srinagar, currently living at Kovalam and running a shop at the resort.
‘The accused involved in this was doing the business for last 20 years. We are probing the case from all angles. It looks like the Ravana idol originated from Sri Lanka. Further investigation is on to find out the temples from where the idols were stolen,’ he added.