Chennai: Idol wing sleuths arrest 7 persons with emerald idol, 5 panchaloha idols

Chennai: The idol wing sleuths arrested seven people including two brothers and a retired army personnel in Tiruvannamalai on Thursday and seized five Chola period pancha loha idols and a Nataraja idol made of emerald. Based on a tip off, police team led by Pon Manickavel, inspector-general of police of the idol wing CID and railways raided a hotel and a house at Yema Lingam on Girivalam Pathway on Thursday.

Police initially arrested two brothers Murugan and Nithyanandam who were managing the hotel, for possession of one idol. Police approached the smugglers and nabbed them after posing as buyers of antique idols.

They were questioned further and police team later raided another house, based on the confession of the brothers, police team recovered few more idols from the place and arrested the inmates including retired army personnel Paulraj. The arrested seven have been identified as Murugan, Nithayandam, Paulraj, Senthil Kumar, Gunasekar and Divyanandam and Shyam Sundar, all aged between 22 years and 43 years. Shyam Sundar was a native of Vellore, while six others were native of Tiruvannamalai town and neighbouring villages.