Lord Buddha idol worth Rs 20 lakh recovered

KISHANGANJ: The recovery of an "ashtdhatu" idol of Lord Buddha, after a courier was by chance intercepted near a railway level crossing in Kishanganj on Sunday, has taken the lid off a flourishing racket in the pilferage of idols and antiques in this part of the state.
Kishanganj police intercepted Shantilal Singh and seized an "ashtdhatu" idol of Lord Buddha, earlier believed to be of gold, from his possession.
The smuggler was waiting to hand it over to a kingpin behind the racket, SHO Pratap Singh said. The idol is estimated to be worth over Rs 20 lakh.
The arrested man, Shantilal Singh, hails from Bhuyia village under the Karandighi police station in West Bengal. He is only a cog in the syndicate of idol thieves, police said. Experts are being summoned to examine the seized idol of Lord Buddha and ascertain its true value in the international market, the SHO said.
On the clues provided by the arrested man after grilling, police raided many hideouts of the suspected kingpin. The raids, however, did not yield any significant results, said SDPO Narendra Kumar.
The SDPO on Monday said the syndicate of idol thieves had a wide network spread throughout the country. Many white-collared people were also involved in the network, he indicated.
Only a couple of days back, Araria district's Bhargama police had stumbled on such a racket and seized nearly a dozen "ashtdhatu" idols stolen from a temple at Kusmal village. The stolen idols were worth several crores and police had arrested a smuggler.
The theft of rare idols and antiques was quite rampant in Purnia as well as Araria districts in the recent past. However, there had been a pause in such nefarious activities after the police, stung by widespread criticism, took some stringent measures and thwarted such dubious gameplan, said sources.
Sources said that age-old temples and other places across Purnia division, which shares borders with Nepal, West Bengal and is close to Bangladesh, were into the glare of the syndicates thriving on the theft of rare idols and antiques. The ganglords often targeted temples and looted precious idols and antiques.