CHENNAI, Sept 13:
Thanks to the diligent efforts made by Idol Wing Special Officer A G Ponn Manickavel, a bronze idol of Lord Nataraja, stolen from a Tamil Nadu temple 37 years back, was brought back to Chennai on Friday morning after it was retrieved in Australia.
The two-and-a-half foot idol was stolen from the Kulasekaramudayar Aramvalartha Nayaki Amman temple in 1982 at Kallidaikurichi in the Southern Tirunelveli district and was smuggled out of the country.
Idol wing officials traced it to a museum in Australia and after following due process of law the idol was brought back to its home turf.
Mr Ponn Manickavel brought the treasure from Delhi by the Tamil Nadu
Express to a rousing reception by beating of drums at the Chennai Central Railway station where a team of sivachariyaas and priests from the temple, besides hundreds of devotees, offered special poojas and Aarthis.
For close to two hours, the front yard at the Railway station resembled a temple as several devotees offered their worship to the idol which was brought in a procession.
Later, the idol was taken by road to Kumbakonam, where it will be produced at a special court for idol theft cases after which it would be handed over to the temple.
The idol, along with three others, were stolen from the ancient temple in the year 1982.
Of these artefacts, the Nataraja idol was traced to a museum in Australia.
Australian authorities flew down and handed it over to the Special Officer and his team on Wednesday in New Delhi, from where it was brought by train today.
The nearly 700-year-old idol, weighing around 100 kg and valued at more than Rs 30 crore, was stolen from the temple after breaking open the doors of the sanctum sanctorum on July 5, 1982.
Along with the Nataraja idol, panchaloha idols of Sivakami, Manickavasagar and Sribali Nayagar were also stolen. Based on a complaint filed by the then Temple trustee, police registered a case the next day.
However, two years later, the police closed the case, saying the idols could not be detected.
A couple of years ago, the case was handed over to the Madras High Court-appointed Idol Wing headed by Mr Ponn Manickavel, who took up the probe.
On the efforts put in by the team, Mr Manickavel said “We repeatedly wrote to Australian authorities and Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) where the idol was in display for 19 years.”
He said the idol was meant for worship only and not for display. “We produced the records substantiating that the temple is the original owner of the idol with photographs taken before the theft. They have now returned the idol to us.”
Talking to reporters at the Railway Station, Mr Manickavel said he spent his pension money to bring back the idol to Chennai.
“We have no funds…we used our own money for train travel”, he added.
He said there were more stolen idols which have to be retrieved from countries like the USA, Australia and Singapore and all out efforts would be made to bring back them if due permission was granted. He said some of the officials were giving wrong report to the State government against the idol wing team and no funds were being given, despite court orders.
He said more than 20 idols and other artefacts have to be brought from Australia and Singapore and over 1,000 idols from the US. (UNI)
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