Bengaluru : Sampangiramanagar police on Sunday arrested five people who were trying to export a 200-year-old Buddha idol.
The arrested have been identified as Panchmruthi Raghuram Chowdhury alias P Raghu (45) resident of Hyderabad, Uday Kumar (37) of Horama, Freddy D’Souza (44) of Vivekanagar, Sharan Nair (41) of Hennur Bande and Prasanna MK (39) of Kottanur.
Police said that on information that some persons were trying to sell an ancient Buddha idol near Woodlands Hotel, our team conducted an operation and arrested five persons.
They had no documents to prove that the idol legally belonged to them. So he was arrested. He informed that a 38 cm Buddha idol was seized from the arrested.
During interrogation, Raghu revealed that he had bought the idol from Srikanth, a resident of Hyderabad, for Rs.30 lakh. As there is a demand for such idols in foreign countries, if the idol is exported and sold, the accused planned to get crores of rupees and this money could be shared by everyone.
The idol has been stolen from somewhere. The police said that the investigation is going on.
A case has been registered against the accused under various sections of the IPC and the Antiquities and Art Funds Act, 1972.
