Salipur: A special squad of Cuttack rural police busted a racket involved in smuggling antique idols by arresting tow persons and recovering eight idols during raids at various places in and outside of the state, a report said Sunday.
The accused were identified as Suresh Yadav, a native of Etah district in Uttar Pradesh and his accomplice Dushasan Sahu of Nimapada in Puri district. A Toyata Innova car was also seized from their possession.
The squad comprising sub-divisional police officer Pradyumna Kumar Jena, Salipur IIC Prasant Kumar Majhi and his Nischintakoili and Nemalo counterparts first arrested Yadav. Thereupon, the police tracked his mobile phone and nabbed Sahu from Nimapada. The police team also recovered a rare Nrusingha idol from Sahu’s possession.
Police were alerted about the racket after a rare idol was stolen from the Buddha temple in Buhala village under Nischintakoili police limits a few days back.
The smugglers after stealing the idols from temples would take them to Delhi and Uttar Pradesh to smuggle them to other countries and the deals would run into crores of rupees.
Acting on the direction of the DGP, Cuttack rural SP Madhav Chandra Sahu formed a special squad and directed it to conduct raids.
The squad raided various places in Salipur, Nischintakoili, Puri, Nimapada, Jajpur, Brahmagiri, Tarpur, Haridaspur, Dhenkanal, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.
SP Sahu said the raids are still on and several others involve in the racket would be arrested soon. PNN