The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Panchaloha idols seized, 4 held

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 19, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Panchaloha idols seized, 4 held

staff Reporter

CHENNAI: Four persons, including a woman, were arrested on charges of attempting to sell a pair of panchaloha idols near Avadi on Tuesday.

The arrested were identified as Jeevamani, Vinoth, Magimai Nathan and Venkatesan.

The police said Jeevamani's son Peter Selvakumar, who was working in a shipping company in the United States allegedly brought the idols and kept them in his house at Avadi when he returned to Chennai in 1998. The same year he died in a road accident, leaving the idols in his mother Jeevamani's custody.

As the woman was in a dire need of money, she decided to sell the idols and asked her family friend Vinoth to find a prospective buyer. Vinoth, along with two of his friends Magimai Nathan and Venkatesan, managed to identify a buyer and price negotiation was held at the Jeevamani's house on Tuesday.

When the information reached the police, a team headed by an Inspector of Police conducted a raid in the house and all the four were arrested.

The police would take up investigation in the period to which the idols belonged to, from where they were stolen and its value in the international market.

This would be done with the help of Archaeological department and other government organisations. The arrested were remanded to judicial custody on Wednesday.

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