Idol thief on the run nabbed after 22 yrs

Sanjeevi Ashokan, hailing from Tiruvananthapuram, who had been on the run for 22 years, was arrested by personnel of Idol Theft Prevention Wing on March 9 and produced before the Judicial Magistrate in Kumbakonam on Saturday, they said. He was remanded and lodged in Tiruchy Central Prison, police said. 

The case relates to the theft of ‘Dwara Balagar’ statues from the temple near Veeravanallur in the district in 1995. The idols had been sold to an art gallery in Australia for Rs 4.98 crore, police said. Though police had originally registered a case in 1995, they closed it after investigations, as ‘not traceable.’ 

Inspector General of Police (Idol Wing) AG Pon Manickavel took up the ‘closed case’ last year and found that the stolen idols had been smuggled to Australia. The idols had allegedly been sold to persons with links to an international idol smuggler. While Ashokan has been arrested, another accused Seetha Ramaiah had passed away.  

A 50-year-old bronze idol of Katchabeswarar Sivachariyar was reported missing from the popular Kumarakottam Murugan temple in Kancheepuram on Saturday. 

The Katchabeswarar idol weighing 7.5 kg is one-feet tall and is worth several lakhs, said temple authorities. The idol had been placed along with those of Nadha Subramaniyar, Vinayagar, Pamban Swamigal and Pazhani Murugar at the Ursava Mandapam located at the south-west corner of temple. 

Regular devotees noticed the idol missing for the past few days and alerted the temple executive officer N Thyagarajan. After visiting the mandapam, he filed a complaint at Siva Kanchi police after which police swung into action and cordoned of the mandapam to collect finger prints. The CCTV cameras in the mandapam have been found to be dysfunctional. This is the second such incident this year in Kancheepuram after 5.75 kg gold was hived from the Somaskandar idol at Ekambaranathar temple in January.