Tamil Nadu Police probe source of 500-cr emerald Shivalingam seized from bank locker

Thanjavur: Tamil Nadu Police is on the pursuit of the source of Rs 500 crore worth Emerald Shivalingam that was recovered from a bank locker at Thanjavur.

Additional DGP K. Jayanth Murali, who is heading the investigation, told reporters that they are ascertaining from where the person in whose locker the lingam was recovered on Thursday sourced the idol.

The police had acted following a tip that antique idols were kept at a house in Thanjavur. They quizzed N.S. Arun, son of octogenarian Samiyappan, the owner of the lingam. However, he said that he did not know anything and that his father had kept an Emerald Lingam at the bank locker. Police found the emerald lingam and experts, including custodians of antique materials like Dharmapuram Adheenam, have confirmed it to be original. Police are investigating whether the lingam was the one that went missing from a Shiva temple at Thirukuvalai in Nagapattinam district in 2016. Jayant Murali told the mediapersons that Samiyappan and Arun are cooperating with the investigation.

An emerald Sivalingam idol had gone missing from the Adi Sankara Janmabhoomi in Aluva, Kerala in 2009 and there was no clue as to where it had gone. The Kerala Police had constituted a Temple Theft Special Investigation Team, but the elite team that cracked several other temple theft cases could not crack this case and the idol still remains elusive. Police are investigating whether the idol that was recovered from the bank locker has any connection with the one stolen from Aluva.