Chennai: The Madras High Court dismissed the petition filed by Gujarat’s Sarabhai Foundation seeking direction to quash the FIRs filed against the foundation as well as to return the antiques of Raja Raja Chola and Lokamadevi.
Justice P Velmurugan passed the order on the grounds of the Additional Public Prosecutor Kasthuri Ravichandran’s submissions that the investigation has not been completed and the probing agency has to collect more document evidence in this connection.
The APP argued that both the statues belong to Tamil Nadu and the seven members have appeared before a court in Thanjavur and gave statements in this regard.
However, the foundation rejected the versions of the police and firmly said the two antiques are from some museums and not from Thanjavur.
The judge rejected the arguments of the foundation. According to the idol wing police, the statues were stolen from TN some 50 years ago and the same was sold to the Sarabhai foundation in an illegal manner. The state police had also filed FIRs against the foundation.
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