Bangalore:
Two persons were arrested in separate incidents while selling antique idols, the police said adding that five kg of gold ornaments worth `1 crore were recovered from them.
Ashwathnarayanan, alias Gouda, 38, a resident of Bairanahalli, Ramanagaram's Magadi taluk, was arrested on Thursday while Yogendra, 32, a resident of Bhairaweshwaranagar, was held on November 14.
Ashwathnarayanan was in the city to sell the ornaments and idols, which he reportedly told the police, was handed over to him by a friend, Prabhu.
The ornaments would be sent to the archaeological department, as they had historical significance and were worth more than a crore, said police commissioner Shankar M Bidari.
Investigations revealed that Prabhu, along with a man identified as Mariswamy, alias Chaddiswamy, had earlier conned a school teacher Muttarayappa and his brother Nagarajappa of Lekkanahalli village in Tumkur's Kollala taluk, into believing that there was a treasure trove worth crores in their farmland. The duo hid the conch in the land and pretended to have found it in the latter's presence. Out of fear that the conch was inauspicious, Nagarajappa, however, returned it to Mariswamy, who tried to sell it a Swamy Gouda, resident of Mallasandra village in Gubbi taluk, Mysore.
Mariswamy and Nagarajappa attempted to fool Swamy in the same manner as earlier, hiding four gold elephants in his farmland, a silver Lord Anjaneya idol, an Ugranarasimha idol and bronze coins in a silver box.
When even this plan failed, the duo handed over the ornaments to Ashwathnarayanan to sell them. He was arrested by the Rajagopalanagar police while trying to sell them. Mariswamy and Prabhu are absconding.
In another case, Yogendra was caught trying to sell an antique idol of Lord Ganesha, made of panchaloha, believed to belong to the 18th century, worth `40 lakh. The police are investigating the cases and the culprits are yet to be caught.
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