Police recover nine ‘stolen’ idols from Chennai house

CHENNAI: The TN Idol Wing CID on Tuesday recovered nine stone idols, believed to be over 300 years old, from a house at Broadway. The residents of the house could not provide any valid documentation for the statuettes. An investigation is on to find the source of these nine idols.

According to an Idol Wing press release, the search in the house on Peradiyar Street was carried out based on a tip-off. The first idol to be found was that of Dakshina Moorthy. During further search, eight other stone idols were found concealed in the house. Pamela Emanuel, owner of the house and wife of the late Manuel R Pineiro (who was reportedly an idol smuggler), could not provide any valid documentation for the idols.

Police said the family of Manuel R Pineiro hid the idols inside the house as they could not be smuggled out of the country after his death a few years ago. The nine idols comprise two relief sculptures of four and five statuettes on plinths of stone; idols of four male deities; and idols of three female deities. Some of these idols have an extension at the bottom, which probably was used to fix them on temples.

The Idol Wing is conducting an investigation to find the temple/s from which these idols  could have been taken. Experts who inspected the idols told the idol wing that these idols could be over 300 years old and seven of the nine idols were antiques.

The value of these idols could be several crores of rupees in the international market, they said. Only after the other individuals linked to this case are apprehended can the origins of the statuettes and the places to which they had been planned to be smuggled can be identified, the Idol Wing said.