Stolen idols seized; 4 persons arrested

Kurnool: The district police had arrested four persons of a nine-member gang which stole the alloy statues of Panduranga Swamy, Bhudevi and Sridevi and a brass idol of Srilakshmi from the Kovelakuntla town in the district on March 30. The five hundred years old statues which were presented by Penugonda King Tirumaladeva to the temple have already been stolen twice in the past and this was the third time. The statues were stolen for the first time in 1964 and the Mumbai customs officials seized them. Again in 1997, they were stolen and the police seized them from the local criminal gang. The same statues were stolen once again on March 30 this year by a gang of nine belonging to Aija village in Mahabubnagar district. According to the police, the gang had managed to get the keys of the main doors of the temple duplicated and by opening the main door with duplicate keys the miscreants broke the temple lock to steal the statues. However, following a tip off, the police with the help of villagers stopped a car at Kasintala village near Allagadda on Friday. When the miscreants tried to get away from the scene the police chased them and apprehended them. The police seized the four statues and the vehicle the miscreants used to transport the statues. Uppari Sekhar, Poosala Badri, Eediga Chandrasekhar Goud and Boya Veeresh were among the arrested and the police are looking out for five others � Bhisanna Uday Kumar, Telugu Venugopal, Karate Venu, Telugu Raju, and another � were at large. Police said that the value of the statues would be Rs. 2 crore in the international market. Police suspect that two persons Uday and Venu are the key persons behind the grand theft. Allagadda CI Ramanjaneyulu, Kovelakuntla SI B Subba Rayudu, Revanuru SI O Vijayabhaskar, Uyyalavada SI C Nilakantheswar and the support staff unraveled the mystery of the grand theft.