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Stolen ancient sculptures of Gautam Buddha recovered, five held
The two ancient sculptures of Gautam Buddha stolen on Saturday night from the excavation site of Archeological Survey of India (ASI) in Hazaribag have been recovered from Ranchi, police said on Thursday
The two ancient sculptures of Gautam Buddha stolen on Saturday night from the excavation site of Archeological Survey of India (ASI) in Hazaribag have been recovered from Ranchi, police said on Thursday.
Police have also arrested five persons, identified as Prem Shankar Singh, 40, Naresh Rai, 50, Kumar Sujeet Singh alias Anku, 46, Yatish Kumar,47 and Sanjay Agarwal, 49.
“After they came to know that ancient sculptures were unearthed during the excavation in Hazaribag, they hatched a conspiracy to steal and sell them in market. They have admitted their crime,” said Hazaribag superintendent of police (SP) Karthik S.
The ASI along with a team has been carrying out an excavation in foothills of Juljul hill at Sadar block of Hazaribag district. The team has so far unearthed a complete shrine with a central and two subsidiary shrines, from two metres below the surface and a small Buddha Vihar like structure. The team also discovered around a dozen of sculptures, which are expectedly of tenth century, from the small Buddha Vihar site.
On Saturday night, two ancient sculptures of Gautam Buddha were stolen in presence of security personnel and labourers working at the site.
Hazaribag police immediately set up a special investigation team (SIT) led by Sadar SDPO Mahesh Prajapati. The SIT conducted series of raids and search operations to find the sculptures.
Police said they first arrested Kumar Sujeet Singh on a tip off. After Singh admitting his crime, police arrested Sanjay Agarwal, who then revealed that the sculptures were kept at home of one Yatish Kumar in Ranchi.
They came to know about the ancient sculptures unearthed during excavation through newspapers on March 3. Then they chalked plan to steal them, as they are very costly in international market. As per their plan, they committed the crime on March 20, police said.
