Chennai: Amid fracas regarding the government’s order of transferring the idol theft cases to CBI, the idol theft wing police team led by IG Pon. Manickavel chased a car in auto-rickshaws and recovered a stolen panchaloha Amman idol and arrested four persons in Chennai on Monday evening. The arrested were identified as Gopi, Ganesh, Yuvanathan and Sakthivel.
Based on a tip-off from one of the accused lodged in Puzhal central prison, IG Pon. Manickavel and his team hired three auto-rickshaws and waited for the suspects on Arcot Road in Karambakkam near Porur. ‘When the police tried to stop a car, the car did not stop and sped past the police team. The team chased the car and stopped it near a nationalized bank in the locality,” the police said.
The police added that, while checking the car, the team had found nearly 1.5 ft panchaloha Amman idol with mangalsutra weighing 20 kg. “The mangalsutra suggest that the idol was worshipped and perpetrators would have stolen the idol from a temple in Tiruvallur district” the idol wing team said. The arrested persons were taking the stolen idol to sell it for Rs 50 lakh.
