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Lord Hanuman idol nearly 500 years old to be returned to India
A 500-year-old idol of Lord Hanuman that was stolen a decade ago from Tamil Nadu and smuggled abroad will be brought back soon.
The statue, which was built sometime between the 14th and 15th century to the Vijayanagara period, was recently found in possession of a private buyer in Australia.
“Five hundred-year-old Lord Hanuman bronze idol stolen from Tamil Nadu temple, to be repatriated back to India. The stolen idol retrieved by US Homeland Security was handed over to @HCICanberra by US CDA,” the minister said in a tweet.
On Tuesday, it was returned to Indian High Commissioner Manpreet Vohra at Canberra by Australian Chargé d’Affaires Michael Goldman.
Here is everything you need to know about the statue and other such instances when antique artefacts were brought back to India:
The idol of Lord Hanuman was burgled from the Varadharaja Perumal temple in Vellur village in Ariyalur district on 9 April, 2012.
Two more idols of Sri Devi and Boodevi were also stolen from the temple on the same day.
According to the Indian Express, in March 2014, the idol was auctioned by Christie’s for $37,500 to a buyer in Australia.
Upon discovery and subsequent investigation, it was found to be the same idol that was stolen from India. The Tamil Nadu Police’s Idol Wing was assisted in the case by US Homeland Security.
The report said that the auction house and the buyer were unaware that the idol was stolen.
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What monkey fled with a bag containing evidence in it: Read full story
The court, generally, considers a person who commit a crime and the one who destroys the evidence, as criminals in the eyes of law. But what if an animal destroys the evidence of a crime committed by a human.
In a peculiar incident in Rajasthan, a monkey fled away with the evidence collected by the police in a murder case. The stolen evidence included the murder weapon (a blood-stained knife).
The incident came to light when the police appeared before the court and they had to provide the evidence in the hearing.
The hearing was about the crime which took place in September 2016, in which a person named Shashikant Sharma died at a primary health center under Chandwaji police station. After the body was found, the deceased’s relatives blocked the Jaipur-Delhi highway, demanding an inquiry into the matter.
Following the investigation, the police had arrested Rahul Kandera and Mohanlal Kandera, residents of Chandwaji in relation to the murder. But, when the time came to produce the evidence related to the case, it was found that the police had no evidence with them because a monkey had stolen it from them.
In the court, the police said that the knife, which was the primary evidence, was also taken by the monkey. The cops informed that the evidence of the case was kept in a bag, which was being taken to the court.
The evidence bag contained the knife and 15 other important evidences. However, due to the lack of space in the malkhana, a bag full of evidence was kept under a tree, which led to the incident.