VILLUPURAM: Three panchaloha idols, said to be 1,000 years old and worth nearly '10 lakh, were stolen from Sri Raja Narayana Perumal temple in Kooghaiyur village on the outskirts of Kallakurichi early Friday.
According to Duraisamy (40) president of Kooghaiyur village, it is a custom of the villagers to borrow these idols from the nearby Sri Soornaburiswarar temple on certain occasions and keep them at the Raja Narayana temple for poojas.
For the past three months, the idols were kept at the Raja Narayana temple for its consecration.
The idols, measuring between 3 and 3 1/2 feet in height and weighing totally 20 kg, were found missing by the priest Anandha Narayanan (35) who came to open the temple for the day’s puja in the morning.
It was also found that the robbers had tried to take away the bronze arch of the Perumal idol, too, but abandoned the arch near the temple compound wall that was only five feet high, which the robbers had scaled.
Based on the information from the priest, Keelkuppam police registered a case.
On being informed, the HR&CE officials came to scene. So did forensics department personnel to look for clues. Further investigations are on.