Cops scoop out idols from Chennai guesthouse linked to businessman

CHENNAI: Police unearthed some 20 idols and artefacts buried on the grounds of a guest house in tony Poes Garden on Friday as they continued to probe businessman

Ranvir Shah

for idol thefts across the state.


Friday's operation was like something out of a

Bollywood

potboiler. The police first found nothing when they searched the guesthouse of the

KCP Sugar

and

Industries Corporation

, which is situated on five grounds on Kasturi Estate Third Street in Poes Garden. Ranvir Shah is an independent director of the firm. They were about to leave when policemen walking on the lawn noticed that the soil underfoot was loose. Some of the flowering plants too came out very easily when the policemen uprooted them.

Their suspicions roused, the cops dug up the lawn and found some idols. They then brought in an earthmover and dug up the whole premises and recovered more idols. These had apparently been buried on the premises a couple of days ago.

Police quiz firm general manager

The idol wing CID officials had decided to search the guest house as a follow-up to the searches at Ranvir Shah’s residence in Saidapet and two farm houses in Melmaruvathur and Oragadam near Sriperumbudur, where too they had found artefacts buried under the earth.

Police are questioning KCP Sugar and Industries Corporation’s general manager Dayanidhi, who had accompanied them to the guesthouse.

Inspector-general of police A G Pon Manickavel, who led the operation, said many of the neighbours, who had never been inside the guesthouse compound, were surprised to see the huge stone pillars unearthed from the lawn.