Bengaluru: The Sampangiramanagara Police has arrested five persons who had come from Hyderabad to export an ancient Buddha statue to foreign countries.
The arrested have been identified as Panchamarthi Raghuram Chowdhary (45), a resident of Kompally in Hyderabad, Udayakumar (37) of Horamavu, Freddy D’Souza (44) of Viveknagar, Sharan Nair (41) of Hennur Bande and M. K. Prasanna (40) of Kothanur.
Police said 38 cm tall Buddha Statue, a briefcase and five mobile phones have been seized from the accused.
Recently, a 200-year-old statue of Buddha was put up for sale by some persons near Woodlands Hotel on Raja Ram Mohan Roy Road in the City with the intention of exporting it to a foreign country. Based on this tip-off, a raid was conducted and the accused were arrested.
Srikanth had sold the idol for Rs. 30 Lakh to the accused Panchamarthi Raghuram Choudhary, a Hyderabad-based accused, who then exported and sold the idol to foreign countries for crores of rupees. Police said he tried to sell the idol by luring his accomplices that the money could be shared by all.
