The Langer Houz police arrested a gang and priceless antique panchloha idols were retrieved late on Friday night. Those arrested have been identified as 35-year-old E. Eswara Chary, a resident of Bupesh Gupta Nagar, 50-year-old N. Abraham, a resident of Vidyanagar, and P. Lachaiah, 40, a resident of Kodaspalli.

According to Langer Houz police, at about 11 pm on Friday night the Eawara and Abraham were arrested while they were moving about in a “suspicious manner” on the Ring Road, Langer Houz. Two antique idols were found with them. According Abraham’s confessional statement, he had found five antique idols while digging for treasure at the Racha Konda Qila of Nalgonda district. Eswara added that people named Prabhakar, Lachaiah, Hanumanthu and Raju had committed theft of idols at Venu-gopala Swamy Temple in Rayaprolu. One of the idols was handed to him for sale. Based on their confessional statements, P. Lachaiah was arrested from his native place and other idols were also seized. Prabhakar, Hanu-manthu and Raju are absconding.

The idols were of Laxmisamyuktha Narasimha Swamy, Venugopala Swamy, Satyabhama, Goda Devi, Chennakeswa Swa-my, Budevi, Sridevi, Udaivarulu and Ramanajulu. “The antique idols are priceless and worth crores of rupees in the international market,” said inspector of Langer Houz.