DRI busts idol smuggling racket, 3 arrested

Busting a racket in illegal export of antique idols using fake ASI certificates, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has nabbed three persons, including a Delhi-based middleman, and seized several idols and artefacts.
The racket came to light when officials, acting on a tip-off, searched the residences of two city-based individuals -- Balaji and Srikanth Omkaram -- and seized antique idols along with some incriminating documents, a DRI statement said.
"The antique objects were kept in the residential houses of the duo for smuggling out to foreign countries using false Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) certificates," it said.
While Balaji and Omkaram were arrested here on October 25, Udit Jain from New Delhi, who was said to have acted as the middleman, detained in Mumbai, the statement said.

Balaji and Omkaram 'confessed' that they were dealing with the trading of antiques for commission illegally and also have arranged for registration of various stolen antiques in ante-dates, with the help of Jain by producing fake documents.
The two were said to have acted under the direction of Dheenadhayalan, who had been arrested in June last for illegal export of antique idols.

All the three were produced before courts and remanded to judicial custody, the release said, adding Jain was working under Deenadayalan.
DRI officials launched "simultaneous operations" in Chennai and Mumbai and further investigation was on, it said.
The seized idols include broken stone statue of Buddha, Mahavishnu, Brahmi, stone pillar carvings, stone pillars with carvings.