Chennai, July 26, 2013: When four panchaloha idols went missing from an 11th century temple in Kancheepuram last week, the first place police looked in was a nearby well. They pumped out gallons of water, but didn't get anything. They continued the search and found the idols, said to be worth more than 50 lakh, in another well on Wednesday. Eight men have been arrested and a hunt has been launched for a few others. 

On July 15, the door of the Pandurangan Bajanai temple in Siruthavur village near Thiruporur was found broken. Four idols of the nearby temple of Lord Boothagireeshwarar, which had been kept here as that temple was in a dilapidated condition, were missing. 

After the theft was reported, the first thing I asked the temple authorities was the weight of the idols, said superintendent of police (Kancheepuram) C Vijayakumar. They told me each idol weighed more than 20kg. "Search in nearby wells and tanks," the had SP ordered his officers. 

Working on the premise that many thieves often threw idols into water bodies till the investigation fizzled out, police teams began scouring various wells and ponds in the area. On Wednesday, they found the idols of goddesses Parvathi and Selliamman and Lord Appar from a well 200 away from the Boothagireeshwarar temple. The idol of Shiva was recovered from a pond further away on Thursday morning. 

Based on a tip, investigators nabbed S Karthik of Thiruporur and on the information provided by him arrested Dharani, Venkatesan, Sakthivel, Vinod, Suresh, Prakash and Manikandan, all residents of Thiruporur. 

Inquiries revealed that Karthik planned to steal the centuries-old idols and convinced his friends to help him, promising them profits. The gang maintained surveillance at the temple for a couple of days before committing the crime, police said. 

A few more people were involved in the theft, investigators said adding that special teams were looking for them. 

The arrested were remanded in judicial custody on Thursday. 

Source: The Times of India, July 26, 2013