Country has a poor record in retrieving stolen antiques

Even as the special investigation team probing the gold theft case in Sabarimala is believed to be looking into the angle of the south India-based antique mafia, statistics with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) reveal that 31 antique idols have been stolen from various protected sites, monuments, and temples in the country in the recent past. Of this, only four could be retrieved by the enforcement agencies, while 27 are still missing.

According to ASI sources, although majority of the cases were reported from south India, especially Karnataka, where 14 antiques were stolen from ASI-protected sites from 2013 to 2023, no antiques were stolen from sites protected under the ASI in Kerala since the ASI formed its circle in Kerala in 1997.

The Kalady case

However, a lot of other cases have been reported in the State, including the theft of the half-foot-tall Sivalinga, made of green stone believed to be emerald, that went missing from the Adi Sankara Janmabhoomi Temple at Kalady in Ernakulam in 2009.

Speaking to The Hindu, a highly placed senior police officer said a Temple Theft Investigation Special Team (TTIST) was formed soon after this burglary. Though the special team cracked many other cases, the idol from Kalady still eludes the police net, despite the team having then tried to question Subhash Kapoor, the U.S.-based antique dealer, whose name now finds mention in the Sabarimala gold theft case. Later, the TTIST team was disbanded, and the members were deputed to other wings of the police force, including District Anti-Narcotics Special Action Force (DANSAF).

In the light of the new Sabarimala controversy and since Mr. Kapoor was extradited to India, the police force is now exploring the possibility of reopening the Kalady case, said the officer. In the case of stolen antiques from the ASI-protected monuments and temples in the country, the agency could retrieve around 251 antiques from abroad from 1976 to 2023. Among these, 238 antiques were retrieved after 2014, and around 176 of them were retrieved from the U.S. alone, followed by 40 from Australia and 16 from the U.K., with the support of Indian embassies and missions abroad.

Theft cases

However, the retrieved antiques are only the tip of the iceberg, considering the number of such thefts during the fag end of the 1990s and the initial years of the millennium. For instance, 813 antiques were stolen from the country in 1997 alone, followed by 528 in 1998, 704 in 1999, 539 in 2000, and 403 in 2001, according to Parliament records. In Kerala, there are 29 protected monuments and 13 temples under the ASI. However, famed temples like Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, where treasure thought to be worth billions of rupees was unearthed from secret underground chambers in 2011, and Sabarimala do not come under the jurisdiction of the ASI.