TIRUCHY: The Idol Wing CID of the Tamil Nadu police is ascertaining ownership details of a Chola-period bronze statue of Lord Krishna in dancing posture, currently in possession of the US Department of Homeland Security, after a special team discovered it to have been sold off by infamous international smuggler Subash Chandra Kapoor to a collector for Rs 5.2 crore.
According to a department release, a special team led by G Balamurugan, Idol Wing ADSP (Tiruchy), which was involved in tracing stolen idols from India in foreign countries, stumbled upon the metal idol of Lord Kaliya Kalki alias Kaliya Marthana Krishna believed to be from 11-12 CE, in the foreign country.
Further inquiries led the team to spot a photo of the idol in a 2008 article titled ‘Gold of the Gods’ by Luis Nicholson. Following the lead, the team found a similar article, titled ‘Hold on to Your Hat: Antiquities dealer Douglas Latchford, a/k/a Pakpong Kriangsak,’ published in 2019 on the ‘Association for Research into Crimes Against Art’ (ARCA) website.
The idol wing team then learned that Latchford was an international art collector. Latchford, who died in 2020, had bought the Krishna idol from Subash Kapoor for Rs 5.2 crore, documents revealed. Nancy Weiner of the USA helped Kapoor in creating a fake report on the idol, the release added.
Efforts are on to ascertain the temple in Tamil Nadu from where Kapoor is suspected to have stolen the idol before 2005. The idol is currently in possession of the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI-USA). An FIR has been registered.