By Umaima Shafiq
Antiquities dealer sent to prison
Subhash Chandra Kapoor, a US-based antiquities dealer, was sent to the Chennai Central jail last week after he was extradited from the US. He was on the Interpol radar after he was accused of masterminding smuggling of stolen artifacts.
The Manhattan District Attorney court found that Kapoor and his associates had sold priceless paintings, statues and idols to museums in Singapore, Australia and America. They hoodwinked their buyers with fake provenance certificates, origin history and authenticity letters. Investigations proved that Kapoor’s ‘credibility’ was such that the buyers did not verify the documents.
The US authorities discovered further treasures at his storage units in New York and unravelled the racket through informants, cyber investigations of the gang’s e-mails and other forensic evidence.
Meanwhile in Salem, police recovered an antique idol of Nataraja worth Rs30mn days after it was stolen from an aged couple at Hasthampatty.
Selvakumar, 60 owned the 120kg idol cast from five metals (Iyyampon) for many years. On December 18, a masked gang of six men entered Selvakumar’s house and made away with the idol.
Based on the couple’s description, police arrested Ganesan, notorious for idol thefts in Salem. Ganesan led them to two others.
Teachers held for corporal punishment
Two teachers were arrested for corporal punishment in separate incidents last week.
In Dharmapuri, Idayathullah, 23, was arrested for hitting a 10-year-old student and causing his death at a madrassa at Palacode.
The victim was recovering from a head injury when Idayathullah banged him against the wall on December 23. The boy collapsed and was declared dead at a local hospital.
At Tirupur, Mohamed Sheik Farid, 27, was arrested for branding a six-year-old student with a hot iron at a residential school. The matter came to light when Ibrahim’s parents visited him and found burn injuries all over his body. Farid claimed that he had punished the boy for not getting up early and poor academics.
Party vows to make Jaya PM
Members of the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party declared that they would work to win the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and make their leader Jayaram Jayalalithaa the prime minister.
They took a pledge in Jayalalalithaa’s presence at the 26th death anniversary of AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran on December 25 in Chennai. Party treasurer O Paneerselvam said: “Fort St George (Tamil Nadu secretariat) is ours. Red Fort (from where Indian prime ministers address the nation) is going to be ours.”
Artefacts stolen from museum
Several ancient artefacts and rare coins were stolen from the Bronze Gallery at the historic Egmore museum in Chennai last week.
Museum officials found the windows of the first and second floors broken and informed the police. However the police are confused by the hazy images on the surveillance camera and have called in forensic experts.
This is the sixth theft at the museum since 2000. Historians have criticised the museum’s lax security arrangements.
The Egmore museum has many other artefacts and is a popular tourist haunt.
TV editor held for sexual assault
The chief editor of privately-owned Captain TV was arrested for sexual harassment of a colleague from his house in Vanagaram in Chennai last week.
