Police receives 12 stolen Basadi idols through speed post

Police receives 12 stolen Basadi idols through speed post

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Nov 6, 2013: In a strange incident, twelve stolen idols of Moodbidri Basadi have reached Mangalore police commissionerate office through a courier from Raipur in Chhattisgarh.

Speaking at the press meet held at Commissionerate office o Nov 6, Wednesday police commissioner Manish Karbikar said that the idols are small and weighed 750 grams. He also said that the idols reached office through Speed Post on November 4, Tuesday and was sent on November 2.

Commissioner said that out of 12, one of the idols was broken. The cost of the courier was Rs 130 and such kind of parcel was not received before to the police. However he refused to give the address of the sender claiming it to be fake address.

He also said that the number of idols stolen as per the FIR and the idols recovered varies. The FIR had mentioned that 15 idols from Basadi had been stolen but the idols recovered are 20.

Previously police had recovered eight idols, out of which five were melted in form of gold piece weighing 1.22 kg, recovered from the house of the father-in-law of Santosh alias Ghanshyam Das in Orissa, along with Rs 2.05 lakhs cash.

The recovered idols of Chandraprabha Swami of Diamond, Munisuvratha Swami made of crystalline, Kacchapanna Arahanta Parameshti, Munisuvratha made out of Lapis, Arahanta of Lapis, Arhanatha made out of crystalline gem, Chandraprabha Swami, Paswnatha, Mallinatha Siddaparameshti, broken pieces of idols, and other valuables are under police custody, he said.

Commissioner said that Bhattaraka Shree of Moodbidri Jain Math has inspected the idols and confirmed it be of Siddantha Mandir.

According to the sources, the gold produced before the police during investigation was the fake one, since the idols were not melted, but it was sold off in Bangkok for a huge amount.

It is recalled that the idols were stolen from Siddantha Mandir, Sri Guru Basadi, Moodbidri on July 6.