Chennai: A sub inspector from Chennai city, wanted for his alleged links with the idol smuggling racket in which eight idols worth Rs 77 crore were stolen from three temples in the state last January, was arrested by Karnataka police for committing a Rs30 lakh dacoity there, police sources said in Chennai. Idol wing officials had arrested a fake DRDO officer on Monday for being part of the same racket in the city.
Idol wing sources said that sub inspector Ravichandran, now placed under suspension, along with associates Maari alias Mareechan and Gokul, were arrested in connection with a dacoity in which Rs30 lakh was looted. The Upparpet police in Bengaluru had reportedly recovered Rs12 lakh and a SUV from the three suspects.
“It appears that at a time when idol wing sleuths had intensified their search for suspects in Tamil Nadu, they had decided to go to Karnataka and commit crimes there,” an idol wing official said, He said they would be seeking the custody of the suspects for questioning soon. On Monday, the sleuths had arrested Joysen Santhakumar, 35, who had been posing as a DRDO scientist, for his links with the movie director V Sekar, also arrested. Joysen joins journalist Malathi, director film V.Sekar, production executive Dhanalingam and government printing press employee Karunakaran have all been held for their links to idol lifting.
Joysen was directly involved in the transportation of stolen idols from Sekar's Thiruvalluvar Kalaikoodam to a finance office in West Mambalam, police said. Further, he is also said to have threatened Malathi over phone to not disclose his name to sleuths after they arrested film production manager Dhanalingam, who was also part of the extensive racket.
The gang had stolen eight idols from two temples in Thiruvannamalai district and another temple located in Sriperumbudur in Kancheepuram district in January this year. Police nabbed the suspects when they were looking Nation, South, Chennai, Tamil Nadufor possible buyers.
