WARANGAL: Warangal commissionerate police on Friday arrested three men and seized seven precious panchaloha idols worth Rs 3 crore in international market. The accused were transporting the idols to Hyderabad in the early hours on Friday in an autorickshaw when the police intercepted at Mulugu road at 5.30 am and arrested them.
Police commissioner G. Sudheer Babu said the central crime station police have taken into custody Tejavath Ramesh of Annampalli village of Mulug mandal, Valamdas Rangaiah of Vadlakonda village of Parvathagiri mandal and Molunguri Mahe-nder of Venkatapur village in Warangal.
The three ganged up and stole from several temples in Tadvai, Mugullapalli, station Ghanpur, and Bhupalpalli mandals. From the idols recovered by the police, two were Lord Rama, two Lakshmana, one Sita, one Venugopalaswamy and one Radha Devi. Police also recovered an autorickshaw.
“The idols belong to the Kakatiya era about 400 years back. The Venugopalaswamy idol was stolen in 2010 from Parlapalli village in Mogullapalli mandal. One of the accused, Ramesh was arrested earlier while stealing idols from Ramalayam in Damaravai. The idols were all hidden at the residence of Ramesh,” Mr Sudheer Babu said.
