50 idols, 30 paintings recovered by Chennai police
The sleuths also found over 30 paintings from the second premises located on Murray's gate road.
Chennai: As part of the on-going probe against artefacts dealer Dheenadayalan, 84, from whom over 100 antique idols and paintings were recovered by cops, two of his premises in Alwarpet were searched on Saturday and sleuths unearthed more than 50 antique idols and 30 paintings.
“We have found some high value woodcrafts and stone idols kept in his godown in Venus colony. We doubt that a majority of the artefacts are from Karnataka,” an idol wing officer said on Saturday.
The sleuths also found over 30 paintings from the second premises located on Murray’s gate road. “Those paintings too have antique value. It would take one more day for us to document these artefacts recovered,” the official added.
Police team have already seized 71 artefacts in stones, 41 panchaloha idols and 75 ancient paintings from the house of the suspect besides arresting three of his aides during the last five days. The total worth of the seized antique items is estimated to be around Rs 40 crore.
Dheenadayalan, who had links with international idol smuggler Subhash Kapoor now languishing in jail, had been doing antique business since 1965.
While idols were stolen from temples, police believe that Dheenadayalan managed to get stone artifacts- including crafted pillars and other objects by stealing the entire temple itself. Sources indicated that he could have identified abandoned ancient temples and offered to rebuild it with granite stones. In the process he removed ancient stone structures to his gallery.