10 stolen antique idols recovered, one arrested in Puri

Puri: Police on Tuesday recovered 10 antique ‘Astadhatu’ (eight metal) idols of different Hindu Gods and arrested a man in Odisha’s Puri district, an officer said.

The police had formed a special squad led by Puri Sadar SDPO Kishore Chandra Mund and Pipili SDPO Debadutta Baral, to hunt antique idol thieves after a series of complaints of idol thefts in the district were reported.

A police team nabbed a man at Chandanpur bypass on Puri-Bhubaneswar NH and recovered four antique idols from him. On further search, six more idols were seized from his possession, reported PTI.

The astadhatu idols were of Hanuman, Maa Durga, Laxmi-Nurshingha and others.

The police have started contacting different temples from where the idols were stolen earlier and in recent times, Additional SP Purnachandra Pradhan said, adding that three teams were working to detect the missing idols.