TIRUCHY/MADURAI: A one and a half feet panchaloha Perumal idol was unearthed at Kumbakonam while digging a coconut farm on Thursday. Selvamani (47), a farmer from Melavisalur while digging his coconut farm near Nagarasampatti canal found a one and a half feet panchaloha Perumal idol and informed the Nachiyar Koil police and the revenue officials.

Revenue inspector Bhooma, VAO Rajasekaran rushed to the spot and collected the idol and handed it over to Kumbakonam tahsildar Venkateswaran. Efforts are on to trace the period of the idol.

Meanwhile, three men were arrested by the Idol Wing CID (IW-CID) personnel and two ancient idols were seized. Arrested were K Balamurugan (36) of Mudukkankulam village, Virudhunagar district, M Prabakaran (40) of Ambattur, Chennai and C Manikandan of Kariapatti, Virudhunagar district, a statement said. Seized were metal iidols of Manickavasagar and Vinayagar.

Preliminary inquiries revealed that these two idols might have been stolen from some temple near Cheyyar area of Tiruvannamalai district. On verifying the characteristics of these two idols with a resource person, it was confirmed that these idols belong to the 18th century period.