By IANS,
Lucknow : Eight people involved in smuggling of artefacts have been arrested with an ‘ashtadhatu’ (eight-metal) idol worth an estimated Rs.1.5 crore in Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur district, police said Thursday.
The eight men were nabbed Wednesday night from Kalyanpur in Fatehpur, some 150 km from here.
“Acting on a tip-off, we along with sleuths of the Special Operations Group (SOG) arrested the eight men while they were waiting for their clients to sell the idol,” Inspector Subhash Chandra told reporters in Fatehpur.
“Though the eight have admitted that they have been into the illegal trade for the last five years and have their clients in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Delhi, Bihar and Uttarakhand, they are giving contradictory statements on from where they got the idol,” he added.
He said the idol weighed around 16 kg.