Mangalore : The police officials of Mulky police station coming under the limits of Mangalore Police Commissionerate have succeeded in arresting the three accused involved in the idol theft case on September 28, Tuesday, said Police Commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh.

Speaking at the press meet held at his office on September 29, Wednesday, he said that the police officials arrested accused Raghavendra Bhat and Manjunath and seized the antique panchaloha idol of lord Lakshmi Narasimha worth Rs 20 lakhs, who were trying to sell it.

During the interrogation, the accused revealed that the idol belonged to Heggari Lakshmi Narasimha Temple located at Bekse Kenchigudde village of Theerta Halli Taluk, Shimoga District. The chief priests of the temple Ramachandra Bhat, Ragavendra Bhat and Ravi had stolen the antique idol and replaced it with the duplicate idol resembling the same and tried to sell to overcome the financial problem.
The priests have replaced the duplicate idol in place of original and perform puja from past 8 months, in order to clear the doubts of devotees. In this regard the police have arrested Raghavendra Bhat of Kaup,  Manjunath of Talipady and Ramachandra Bhat of Heggari. Other accused like Ravi, Sandeep and Dinesh are absconding.
The idol has the history of 300 years and is 11 inch height, weighing 5 and half kilogram.
The Mulky CPI Shivaprakash R Naik and his team Muniswamy, ASI Raghava, HC Chandappa and constables like Chandrashekar, Sundar, Bennichan, Sanjeeva, Ashwin Kumar and Lohit conducted the operation under the guidance of Panambur ACP M Puttamadhayya.
DCP R. Ramesh and M Mutthuraya were also present in the press conference.