23 sculptures dug out from guest house

fter two pillars were unearthed on Friday, the search continued for another day, as the officers suspected that more idols were buried in the site. About 15 officers from the Idol Wing supervised the process, and workers were deployed to dig the land and retrieve the artefacts. 

It was done in the presence of lawyers and other representatives of KCP Sugar and Industries Corporation Limited.

Sources said that the idols seized included a village deity called ‘Munusamy,’ which reportedly had an inscription about its original location. Two earthmovers were used to load the seized items on to a truck, which proceeded to Kumbakonam. Official sources said the items which were kept at Amethyst Cafe on Whites Road were brought to the premises in the last week and buried at a depth of four to eight feet. 

As the Idol Wing officially concluded the search on Saturday evening, ADSP Ashok Natarajan informed the media that the seized artefacts were antiques worth several crores of rupees. Adding that they will be produced in the court, he also warned those in possession of such items to come forward and surrender them to Idol Wing.

DSP Sundaram said that operation was carried out after obtaining a search warrant. When officials initially searched the house, they noticed plants in the lawn were lifeless, and suspected that they could have been planted recently. 

“An entire garden had been set up on the surface to make it look normal,” added another Idol Wing source.

Meanwhile, a senior officer said a look-out notice would be issued to V Kiran Rao, the executive director of KCP group, who owns Amethyst Cafe. 

Rao issued a statement admitting that she buried a few sculptures recently after an anonymous caller threatened her demanding some of the idols from her personal collection apart from money to spare her family. 

“I have had this collection of sculptures in my family for three decades now, and I am emotionally attached to them. I buried certain sculptures under the misguided notion that hiding them would somehow protect my family, as they had been in the open for decades,” she said in the press release.

Rao also mentioned that she came to know about Idol Wing sleuths’ direction to the owners of sculptures to disclose their possession only after burying them. “I have already begun consolidating the information regarding the said sculptures in my possession in order to complete the disclosure requirements within the stipulated time period,” she said.