Andhra Pradesh - Guntur   

Panchaloha idols seized; priest among seven held

Photo: T. Vijaya Kumar

Smart work: The 200-year-old panchaloha idols seized by the police in Guntur on Friday. —

GUNTUR: Guntur police on Friday seized six panchaloha idols valued at Rs.30 lakh and arrested seven persons, including the priest of Sri Venugopala Swamy temple, at Chintakunta in Kurnool district. Annaparaju Subrahmanyam, main priest of the temple, along with six others allegedly made good with ‘panchaloha’ idols of Venugopala Swamy, goddess Rukmini, Satya Bhama and Chennakesava Swamy, which the endowment department identified as 200-years-old. Two idols of Lord Rama allegedly stolen from Sitarampuram in Piduguralla mandal of Guntur district were also found with them and those were about 50 years old.

Tenali police on a tip-off that the gang of seven people, including a woman, was trying to sell these idols went as buyers and arrested them to recover the entire property, Superintendent of Police Sankha Bratha Bagchi told reporters on Friday.

Other accused were identified as Kunchala Baludu, 39, Kalam Giri Venkateswarlu, 38, Bheemavaram Thirupathi, 58, Pola Dasanna, 45, Kumba Venkateswarlu, 32, and Sk. Nahidmallik, 25.

Meanwhile, the police arrested a gang of five vehicle lifters and recovered eight motorcycles and four scooters, all valued at Rs.3 lakh. The SP produced all of them hailing from Praksam and Guntur districts before the media.

The accused were identified as Bukka Venkata Seshachalam, Thalari Koteswara Rao, Thanneru Ramakrishna, Thammuluri Chandrasekhar, and Kunchala Mahesh.

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