Puri theft puts CID on alert

kolkata: the idols which were stolen from jagannath temple in puri, recently, were probably meant to be smuggled to nepal. while the madan mohan idol was recovered near the temple premises, the silver idol of narayani, weighing 6 kg, remains untraced. the west bengal police received an alert urging greater vigil and frisking at the indo-nepal border, a senior state police officer said.nepal, according to police officials, has traditionally been an international market for stolen idols and also a victim of plunderers. for decades, rare statues of gods and goddesses, religious relics and priceless artefacts were smuggled out by organised gangs and sold to bidders in europe, america and asia ready to pay a high price, a senior cid officer in kolkata pointed out. over the past two months, nepal has launched a global search with governments, museums, dealers and collectors in 91 countries for missing religious artefacts, most of which were stolen after the hindu kingdom opened its doors to the world in the late 1950s, a cid official said. confronted with proof of theft, an american collector recently returned a 14th-century image of the sun god, surya. german authorities sent back idols of shiva and parvati which were stolen in 1982 from dhulikhel. however, cid officials claimed, smuggling syndicates have not been affected in the least and are still thriving in india and nepal. the cid's concern over the existence of such a racket is quite understandable for the simple reason that west bengal itself is considered a treasure trove for antique smugglers. in hundreds of temples situated in obscure corners of rural bengal, priceless idols stay unguarded, special superintendent of cid shivaji ghosh said. in recent years, the cid has suffered major setbacks in cases of idol theft. in 1994, a madan mohan idol was stolen from coochbehar. although the cid arrested the alleged kingpin, they failed to recover the idol. a resident of sonarpur in south 24 parganas was arrested on suspicion that he was the kingpin of the theft racket. three customs officials were also arrested for complicity, but had to be released for lack of evidence. similar was the fate of a 100-year-old idol of goddess durga at a famous temple at chandrakona, midnapore. the cid has almost lost its hope in the investigation, unless some important clue comes in its way.