Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The police arrested two persons for stealing a precious brass idol of Nandi from the Malhar Martand Museum (Rajwada) within 12 hours after an FIR was filed on Wednesday. The buyer of the idol was also arrested and the idol was recovered from him.
According to additional DCP Rajesh Vyas, Rajendra Joshi, the manager of Khasgi Trust, lodged a complaint with the Sarafa police station on Tuesday that unidentified men had fled with an idol of Nandi from Rajwada on December 10. The incident came to light the next day when the employees found the idol missing from there. A case under Section 380 of the IPC was registered against unidentified persons.
A team led by Sarafa police station-in-charge Sunil Sharma was constituted by the senior officers to investigate the case. The police checked footage from more than 50 CCTVs at the spot and other places in the city to track the route of the accused. With the help of CCTVs, the police reached the accused and arrested them from the Gandhi Nagar area of the city on Wednesday.
The accused were identified as Karan, alias Kannu, a resident of a multi-storey building near Gommatgiri and Santosh, alias Anda, a resident of the same building. Later, they were arrested by the police. The accused reportedly informed the police that they had sold the idol to a certain Dharam Prajapati of the Bada Ganpati area after the incident. The police later arrested Dharam and recovered the idol from him.
According to the police, the idol—weighing around 21 kilograms and worth Rs 5 lakh—was recovered from the accused and further investigations are on in the case.
‘Not an antique idol’
‘The incident took place on December 10 and we came to know about it the next day. After that, we checked footage from the CCTVs, but, due to a technical problem, we could not file an FIR with the police the same day. After permission from the trust, the complaint was lodged on December 14. However, it wasn’t an antique idol. It was gifted by a trustee in 2006-2007’ - Complainant Rajendra Joshi.
