INDIA, TAMIL NADU, May 2, 2015 (The Hindu): Acting swiftly, the district police have cracked the Thiruvadanai temple burglary case by arresting three accused and recovering four century-old statues, hidden in a waterbody. Ten days after burglars struck at the ancient Adhi Rathineeswarar Temple at Thiruvadanai in Ramanathapuram district on April 20 and decamped with the statues, special teams, after launching technical surveillance, arrested the accused near Melur in Madurai district on Thursday night.
After interrogation, police recovered the statues of Vinayagar (26 inch), Chandrasekar (27 inch), Bhavani Amman (22 inch) and Asthiradevi (19 inch) dumped in a waterbody, 2.5 miles away from the temple on Friday and launched a hunt for two more accused, Superintendent of Police N. M. Mylvahanan said. As part of their modus operandi, the accused had dumped the statues in the waterbody. After assessing the value of the statues, they planned to recover them for sale, the SP said.