Idol Wing sleuths seize antique Nataraja idol in Coimbatore 

A 52-year-old man from Kerala was attempting to sell the idol; the provenance of the antique is still unclear

Officers of the Idol Wing CID seized a Nataraja idol, believed to be an antique, and worth around ₹8 crore in Coimbatore, on Monday.

The case began when, around a month ago, the officers initially received information from an informant, stating that a person named Sivaprasath Namboothiri, 53, of Palakkad, Kerala was attempting to peddle an antique idol of Lord Natarajar, through a broker, for ₹8 crore.

Following this information, senior officers, the Director General of Police, Idol Wing CID K. Jayanth Murali and the Inspector General of Police, R. Dhinakaran, chalked out a plan to deploy a decoy. As per the plan, Inspector Premasanthakumari, Sub Inspectors Pandiarajan and Rajesh of the Madurai unit of the Idol Wing were instructed to masquerade as buyers and approach the idol seller.

Initially, Nambuthiri was very reluctant to give his address and show the idol to the police officers pretending to be buyers. It took more than a month to win the seller’s confidence after several conversations over the phone. In one such conversation, the seller divulged that the idol was more than 300 years old and that he was willing to sell it for ₹8 crore.

After a great deal of persuasion, Namboothiri agreed to meet the sub inspector at Irugur Junction, Palladian Road, Coimbatore, on Sunday, November 6.

When Namboothiri and his team reached Irugur Junction at 5 a.m. on Sunday, the Inspector and her team surrounded them. During an enquiry Namboothiri confessed that due to the family’s circumstances, they had decided to sell the Natarajar idol. In order to go through with the sale, they had prepared some documents as well, which were seized during the operation.

“The seller could not produce any documents to establish the provenance of the idol. Going by the version of the idol owners, the idol could have been stolen long ago from any temple in Tamil Nadu,” said G. Balamurugan, Additional Superintendent of Police of the Idol Wing CID.