People from Sripuranthan and Suthamalli, the villages from where idols were stolen by robbers associated with the international smuggling racket of Subhash Chandra Kapoor, are happy over the arrest of the kingpin and hope the idols would be restored.
However, they don’t want them housed in the respective temples. “House them in a museum in the district.
Let the temples take them only during festivals,” they suggest.
Nataraja Nattar, a resident of Suthamalli village, where 18 idols were stolen, said: “I hope the police recovers the lost idols soon. But they should be kept under safe custody and given to us during temple festivals alone.”
In fact, the remaining idols of the temples at Suthamalli and Vikiramangalam have been housed in safer temples by the HR and CE department.
However, there is a flip side. It’s not easy for temples to get back idols from museums for events, as Govindharajan of Sripuranthan found out.
Three idols, stolen in 1986 from a Perumal temple at the Sripuranthan village, were subsequently recovered and kept in safe custody. The authorities are yet to share them with the temple, informed Govindharajan.
On Saturday, when Kapoor was produced in an Ariyalur court, police officials visited the temples that were robbed. Villagers of Sripuranthan also met them and flagged their demand for the Perumal temple idols.
“We want them only for festivals. The officials assured that they would address the issue,” said Arivazhagan of Sripuranthan.
But how does one identify the retrieved idols? “When we asked the police officials to restore them, they wanted to know if we had any evidence that would help establish the idols’ identity. We do have some photographs tak-en during festivals. We intend to share them with the police,” said people of Sripuranthan.
CPI activist Ulaganathan said, “The government should set up a museum in Ariyalur district for storing valuable idols of temples in the area. They should be recorded and maintained.”