200-yr-old stolen panchaloha idols recovered in Kumbakonam, 4 held

On February 10, three idols of Srinivasa Perumal, Sri Padmavathi Thayar, Sri Vigneshwarar idols and various metal articles were stolen after breaking the sanctum sanctorum and the sannidhi of the Srinivasa Perumal temple maintained by the Athidhasappa Naidu clan from Thirupurampiyam Veedhi near Kumbakonam in Thanjavur.

Temple priest Parangusam, who went to the temple next evening, found that the articles in the temple were scattered and soon he passed on the information to temple official Balaji, who lodged a complaint with Swamimalai police.

Based on the complaint, DIG (Thanjavur Range) Loganathan instructed Thanjavur SP Maheswaran to form a special team led by DSP (Kumbakonam ) Jayachandran. The team took up the investigation and conducted a series of inquiries in Chennai, Kancheepuram, Theni and Cumbum.

In such a backdrop, on a tip-off, the police secured Ramalingam (46) from Ganapathi Nagar in Kumbakonam, who was the brain behind the idol theft. Upon interrogation with the Ramalingam, the police found that a gang of four including Ramalingam’s wife Rasathi (35), their son Kamalraj (20) and Ramalingam’s friend Melvin Sahayaraj (40), a resident from Pottuchavadi in Thanjavur, were involved in the idol theft.

Subsequently, based on the information from Ramalingam, the police arrested the other three and recovered three idols and silver articles used in the temple. On further interrogation, the police found that the gang had planned to sell the idols abroad through an agent.

Later, all the four were produced before the court and were lodged inthe prison.