Three idols of Lord Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana were stolen from a temple of Tamil Nadu several decades earlier. Idols were restored by the govt. of India on Tuesday when a collector offered to return those back to after knowing the history behind it. The theft happens back in 1978 and the investigation was being done by the idol wing of Tamil Nadu police working in cooperation with the colleagues of Metropolitan police in London. After matching the photographs from 1950 that was held at a French school in Pondicherry. After the comparison, it was hence proved that the idol was from India and they belonged to the Vijayanagara period and were stolen from Sri Rajagopalaswami temple at Ananthamangalam in Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu.
The return ceremony was live streamed from India House in London in managing the limits of gatherings as per the Covid-19 guidelines and the priests from the Sri Murugan Temple of London held a religious ceremony to handover the idols to India.
Indian high commissioner, Gaitri Issar Kumar said, “on the behalf of the govt. of India, I hope this will inspire museums and collectors to carefully look and check their collection and help us to restore deities that belong to the people of India and have been worshipped for centuries”. Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of Culture and Tourism connecting virtually to the event from Delhi has welcomed the idols coming back to India which were among the 40 priceless stolen artifacts brought back to India since the year 2014.
