Karur police recover seven stolen panchaloha idols, gold ornaments

Trichy: Karur town police have recovered seven

panchaloha

idols of Hindu deities from an isolated location in the district along with jewellery weighing 35 sovereigns stolen from a house in the town last month. Among the idols were those of Perumal, Sridevi and Boomadevi apart from Ram, Shiva and Hanuman.

While there is no clue about the temple from where these idols were stolen, Karur town police have handed them over to the Karur district court. They have also written to the idol wing police on the recovery of the idols. As for the jewellery found, it was On February 5 that Madhumitha of Vadivel Nagar reported the theft of 54 sovereigns of ornaments from her house to the Karur town police.

The special team formed to nab the perpetrators scanned the CCTV footage and active mobile numbers at the scene of the crime. The footage revealed involvement of a gang which came in a car in the theft incident. While the police were unable to track down the perpetrators for a month, a breakthrough came in the form of S Rathina Kumar from Kulithalai of Karur district who was detained by police on suspicion during a routine vehicle check in Karur.

He confessed to have orchestrated the theft along with three others identified as P Karuppasamy alias Sivabalan from Madurai, P Mohanraj from Tiruchengode and Boopathi Prabakaran. “We came to know that the main accused Karuppasamy died on February 16 over ill health,” said inspector K Udaya Kumar of Karur town police station.

Rathina Kumar took them to a spot at Vadipatti in Madurai district along the Dindigul - Madurai road from where the 35 sovereigns of stolen jewellery were recovered. Besides, seven panchaloha idols stolen by Karuppasamy on an earlier occasion were also recovered from an adjacent spot, he said. While Rathina Kumar doesn’t seem to have been involved in the theft of idols, there is no clarity on the temple to which the idols belong, added Udayakumar. One of the accused in the theft, Mohan Raj is in Salem jail in connection with a different case. The special team is searching for Prabakaran who is absconding.