CHENNAI: Customs arrested veteran Tamil producer-cum-director V Sekar, 55, on charges of smuggling eight panchaloha idols worth Rs 80 crore. Police said Sekar had kept the idols in his house and gave shelter to some people involved in idol theft. He was arrested from his residence in K K Nagar.
Additional director general of police (idol wing CID) Prateep V Philip said there are 11 more people, including a college student and a robber, involved in the racket. A team has been assigned to apprehend them. Police had arrested Danalingam, a film production manager, and two others in May this year and recovered eight stolen panchaloha idols from them.
Sekar, a well-known name in the Tamil film industry, runs a production unit called Thiruvalluvar Kalaikoodam, and is known for his multi-starrer family entertainers that deal with the daily struggles of the working class. He has produced films such as ‘Viralukketha Veekkam’, ‘Varavu Ettana Selavu Pathana’, ‘Kaalam Maari Pochu’ and ‘Hendtheer Darbar’.
On January 6, a Shiva-Parvathy panchaloha idol weighing 20kg was stolen from Manikantheshwara temple in Sriperumbudur. Four days later, burglars stole seven panchaloha idols from temples in Paiyur and Soundaryapuram in Kancheepuram district. The probe led police to Dhanalingam, who was arrested from West Mambalam. His arrest led to recovery of the stolen idols and arrest of two of his accomplices.
Sekar was remanded in Puzhal central prison after being produced before a metropolitan magistrate court in Egmore on Wednesday.
Tamil Nadu, home to hundreds of ancient temples, has seen several instances of idol thefts in the past. Art thief Subhash Kapoor, who is accused of carting away invaluable idols from Tamil Nadu to museums across the world, had plundered sites such as Brihadeeswaran temple in Sripuranthan in Ariyalur district in Tamil Nadu. Kapoor, who was operating in the US, was extradited to India in 2013.
