Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Ancient Jain Idols Recovered

Karwar: Ancient antique panchaloha idols of Chandranatha and Parshwanatha were recovered by the Bhatkal police. They were stolen from Padmavathi temple (a Jain temple or Basadi) at Haduvalli village in Bhatkal taluk in August last year.

Raman Gupta, Superintendent of Police, showed presspersons here on Tuesday the recovered idols. He said Vijayanand Sambanna (48) of Harihar in Davanagere district was arrested in this connection and the other accused Nasrulla, alias Munna of Harihar and Ashok Joshi of Hospet were reported to be absconding. Bhatkal taluk has some ancient Jain temples administered by the Archaeological Survey of India.

Mr. Gupta said the idols of Chandranatha and Parshwanatha were estimated at Rs. 30 lakh and the value of these antique pieces in the international market could be much higher. The antique idol of Chandranatha weighed 17 kg and two-foot tall and Parshwanatha weighed 15 kg and was 1.5-foot tall.

He said Vijayanand was an autorickshaw driver in Harihar, he was a Commerce graduate. Later he worked as a sales man in a private company at Harihar. He was transferred to Hospet in Bellary district. There he came in contact with Ashok Joshi who used to buy stolen antique idols from Vijayanand. Nasrulla and Vijayanand had stolen idols from Shirur, Hiryadka, Bhatkal, Bidkalkatte, Kundapur and Yerlapadi in Uttara Kannada and Udupi districts since 2000, said Mr. Gupta.

On August 7, 2010, Vijayanand and Nasrulla allegedly came to Bhatkal on a motorcycle and visited the Padmavathi temple in the afternoon. Nasrulla broke open the door of the temple and both lifted the idols and left for Harihar. Next day, they sold the idols to Ashok Joshi in Hospet for Rs. 1,15,000 which was divided by Vijayanand and Nasrulla among them.

Vijayanand was taken into the custody by Bhatkal police and was interrogated.

Based on his information, police seized the idols from the house of Ashok Joshi. Mr. Gupta said that the idols would not be returned to the temple authorities unless a closed-circuit camera was installed there.

Additional Superintendent of Police V.B. Gaonkar, Bhatkal DySP M Narayan amongst other police officers were present.

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