55 idols seized from a house in Chennai

PTI, Apr 22, 2023, 5:42 PM IST

The Tamil Nadu Idol Wing sleuths seized about 55 idols, dating back to the 9th or 10th century, from a house here, State Director General of Police C Sylendra Babu said on Saturday.

The idols, made of stone, were antique in nature and they were recovered from a private collector, he said. ”An idol of Hanuman, stolen from the Varadaraja Perumal temple, Ariyalur district, would be handed over to the temple authorities. Also, the remaining idols too would be handed over to the temples from where they were stolen,” he said. The Hanuman idol was traced to the US from where a person purchased and took it to Australia. Later, it was brought to India, the top official told reporters here. ”All the idols could have been stolen about 70 years ago,” he added.

So far about 64 idols, which found their way to the US, Australia, Singapore and England were traced with the assistance of Indians living abroad and steps are on to retrieve them. Singapore has agreed to return 16 idols to India, he said.

”In June last year, I went to Delhi and brought 10 idols returned to India and of them, 9 have been handed over to the temples concerned. Since the last two years, we have recovered 307 ancient idols that could be 1,000 years old. Further, there are 301 undetected cases in Tamil Nadu,” Babu said and lauded Additional DGP, Idol Wing, Shailesh Kumar Yadav and Additional Superintendent of Police Balamurugan and their team for their efforts in detecting 55 idols.