“The CBI has not registered any case against me; such an allegation is completely false,” said Ponn Manickavel, a retired IG.
In a pressmeet that he gave yesterday (November 9, 2022) near Kapaleeswarar Temple in Mylapore, Chennai, he said “I retired as an IG from the Idol Anti-Smuggling Unit. Thirteen Panchaloka idols were stolen from the Palavoor temple in Tirunelveli district in 2005. Six of these idols were recovered while digging a dump for a house that belongs to a person named Arogyaraj in Aladipatti, a village near Arupukottai in Virudhunagar district. It was reported that the police, including Kadhar Basha, an inspector with the Anti-Idol Smuggling Unit, seized them and sold them to an international idol smuggling gang.”
He went on to say that Ashok Natrajan, Deputy Superintendent of Police, conducted an investigation and submitted a 47-page report and that based on the report, a case was filed against Kadhar Basha and his accomplices, who were arrested and imprisoned after confessing to the crime.
However, Kadhar Basha filed a petition in Madras High Court claiming that Ponn Manickavel falsely implicated him in the case in order to save another idol smuggler, Dheenadhayalan and that the case should be quashed. The court has also ordered that the case be investigated by the CBI.
Ponn Manickavel continued, “Despite the fact that the CBI filed a case in this matter, neither my name nor Ashok Natarajan’s name was mentioned in the FIR. CBI officials used the same FIR that we filed against Kadhar Basha and his accomplices. The CBI has not filed any charges against me. Such allegations are completely false.”
He further said, “Dheenadhayalan has been smuggling ancient idols through Mumbai to other countries since 1958. The anti-idol-smuggling unit, which began operating in 1983, made several attempts to arrest Dheenadhayalan, but I was the first to arrest him.”
He concluded that his contribution was instrumental in the arrest of another international idol smuggler, Subhash Chandra Kapoor and that associating smugglers with him is completely absurd.
(with inputs from Dinamalar)
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