CHENNAI: Claiming that he is innocent, idol smuggler Deenadayalan, 84, on Friday approached a city court seeking bail.
In the petition, Deenadayalan alias Deendayal Mungara of Alwarpet, submitted he was charged for alleged offences under sections 457 (2), 380 (2), 411 (2) IPC and 25 (1) of Antiquities and Art Treasures Act by Idol Wing CID, Chennai. He said his daughter and son-in-law were both leading doctors in Karnataka. His son was living in USA and daughter-in-law works with IBM.
“I was running a licensed shop, Aparna Art Gallery at Alwarpet since 1968, dealing in buying and selling art and antiquities. The company was doing business without any blemish.
On May 30, police entered his office and arrested his staff. He was arrested and remanded to judicial custody on June 21. Police had not approached the court for custody so far, he said.
In the FIR, there was no utterance about any complaint from any temple and no material was shown that the idols in his house and godown were stolen ones. He recalled that a case against him was registered under the jurisdiction of Valliyur Judicial Magistrate.
The Madras high court granted him anticipatory bail in the case. Subsequently, in March 2016, the police filed a petition before the court seeking further investigation in the matter. Two months later, the police raided his house, he said.
Deenadayalan said he was in prison for over 30-days. Stating that the police had foisted a case on him, he sought bail. The Principal Sessions Judge, G. Jayachandran, directed City Public Prosecutor, M.L. Jagan to file reply and adjourned the matter to July 28.
