The state police got information that two precious statues had made their way into Kolkata and were waiting to be sold in the market.
Police officials posed as buyers and contacted the people who had the statues. These men asked the ‘buyers’ to meet them at a secluded spot on the E M Bypass.
A deal of Rs 58 lakh was struck for a statue of Radha.
Police sources said their team then asked the smugglers, three of them, if they could see the statue before they finally ‘bought’ it. The men accompanied the police team to a car parked nearby. The statue was wrapped in a towel. The three, along with the driver, were immediately arrested. On interrogation it was found that the second statue, of
Krishna, was with their accomplice in Diamond Harbour.
It took the police team a few hours to arrest this man and recover the statue.
The statues weigh 12 kilograms each and is understood to have antique value. They are 18 and 16 inches in height. The ornaments on the statues — the necklaces, trinkets and even Krishna’s flute — are missing. Experts consulted by the police confirmed that one statue is made of brass while the other of black basalt. It is suspected that the four arrested are a part of a larger, international racket. The police have not yet been able to trace where the statues were stolen from.