Puri: Police Tuesday recovered 10 antique ‘Astadhatu’ (eight metal) idols of different Hindu Gods and arrested a man on the charge of stealing them from various temples in Puri district, an officer said.
The district police have formed a special squad led by Puri Sadar SDPO Kishore Chandra Mund and Pipili SDPO Debadutta Baral, to hunt antique idol thieves after a series of complaints on idol thefts in the district were reported.
On Tuesday, a police team nabbed a man at Chandanpur bypass on Puri-Bhubaneswar NH and recovered four antique idols from him. On further search, six more idols were seized from his possession.
The astadhatu idols were of Hanuman, Maa Durga, Laxmi-Nurshingha and others.
A case was registered at Chandanpur police station in this connection. The arrested man is a resident of Patapur village under Nimapara police limits of the district.
The police have started contacting different temples from where the idols were stolen earlier and in recent times, Additional SP Purnachandra Pradhan said, adding that three teams were working to detect the missing idols.
The police was also probing whether the idol lifters have any international links.
PTI
