Chennai: Smuggler Deenadayalan's aide held

Chennai: In what appears to be the first skeleton to tumble out of the closest of idol smuggler Deenadayalan, Idol Wing sleuths arrested 48-year-old aide of the smuggler on Monday on the charge of murdering another aide over a decade ago.

Sources said the arrested person, identified as Vazhivittan (48), has been remanded in judicial custody at the sub-jail in Sivakasi. The deceased, Shakthi Mohan, a small time jeweller and the arrested person were at loggerheads over chopping off the arm of a Dancing Nataraja panchaloha idol in 2005.

The gang had struck on the night of June 18 at the Narambunathaswamy Temple, built by King Veera Marthanda Varma in 6th century in Palavoor, Tirunelveli,.

As many as 13 metal idols of Nataraja, Sivagami Amman, Karaikkal Ammaiyar, Manickavasagar, Narumbunathar, Vinayagar, Valli, Krishnan, Bala Vinayagar, Veilukatha Amman, Komati Amman, Asthrathevar and Subramaniaswamy were stolen late in the night. The gang was divided over disposing of the idols to potential buyers. The tension reached a feverish pitch in Deenadayalan's camp since most of them believed that all the idols were made of gold and melting the idols would help them make more money than selling them as they were.

It culminated with Vazhivittan killing Shakthi Mohan whose son Balaji is also part of the smuggling ring in which Deenadayalan was involved. After killing Shakthi Mohan, the body was disposed of in their camp. The murder was likely to have happened in 2007 before the idols reached Deenadayalan's hands through a dealer named Dinakaran, who was tasked by the gang to sell the idols since they could not find any gold in the idols.

Earlier in 2006, the idol wing cops, who were investigating the case, arrested Arunachalam and Shajahan and recovered 5 idols from them in Madurai. Months later in May 2007, the police arrested two more suspects named 'Saudi' Murugan and Balaji.

By this time, Dheenadayalan had purchased some idols and police recovered 4 idols from his shop in July 2007. He had negotiated with a foreign buyer to sell the Nataraja idol for Rs.15 crore. Though Dheenadayalan was booked, he managed to evade the custodial interrogation in that case.