Idol Wing of Tamil Nadu police unearthed 23 antique items including temple pillars and idols from the lawns of a company's guest house at Poes Garden in Chennai even as the owner of the premises claimed the sculptures were buried to protect them.
Acting on a tip-off, a team of the idol wing police searched the guest house of KCP Sugars and Industries Corporation Ltd on Friday and recovered two temple pillars. The search continued on Saturday when the police recovered 21 other antique items including pillars and idols that were buried in its lawns.
The search at the guest house was connected to the investigation against businessman and art collector Ranvir Shah from whose premises the police had recovered over 244 idols, stone pillars and artefacts.
When the Idol wing police inquired a former employee of Amethyst Cafe run by Kiran Rao, who is also the executive director of the KCP Sugar, he revealed he saw artefacts being moved out of the cafe. The former employee was jailed for blackmailing cafe owner Rao demanding Rs 60 lakh. Shah was listed as the independent director of the KCP Sugar.
Police said even as they conducted searches on the premises owned by Shan at Srinagar Colony in Chennai and two of his farmhouses in Kancheepuram last week, some idols were moved to other locations.
Meanwhile, Kiran Rao, in a statement, said she received a call from an unknown number seeking a certain amount within an hour and certain sculptures in her personal collection and threatened to somehow take them away. "I have had this collection of sculptures in my family for three decades and I am also emotionally attached to this collection," she said.
‘Saving Mission’
- The owner of the premises claims the sculptures were buried to protect them.
- ‘Since I was black-mailed I thought hiding them would protect us’.
- She said she has already befun consolidating info on them for passing them on to police.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Idols")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}