Bihar: 5 with links to idol smuggling gang get 5-year jail term
The five convicts were said to be part of an inter-state as well as international gang of statue smugglers.
2 min read
Additional public prosecutor Rajiv Narayan told The Indian Express, "The court has sentenced the accused to five years of imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh on each; while sentencing them to three-year jail term and slapping Rs 50,000 fine on each under relevant IPC sections. (Representational Image)A Gaya court on Monday sentenced five persons, with links to international gang of statue smuggling, to five years of rigorous imprisonment, while slapping a fine of Rs 1.5 lakh on each for stealing 10 basalt idols of Lord Buddha worth over several crores in the international market in February 2022.
All the statues have also been recovered from a village in Gaya, said police. The court of additional district and sessions judge, Ranjit Kumar, handed over a five-year jail term to the five convicts — identified as Ghoonghat Choudhary (from Gaya), Arvind Kumar Das (Katihar), Mohammed Shamshad (Nalanda), Amit Kumar (Patna), and Mohammed Sonu (Nawada) — under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 413 (habitually dealing in stolen property) and 414 (assisting in concealment of stolen property).
Additional public prosecutor Rajiv Narayan told The Indian Express, “The court has sentenced the accused to five years of imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh on each; while sentencing them to three-year jail term and slapping Rs 50,000 fine on each under relevant IPC sections. All the five accused have been sent to judicial custody.”
The five convicts were said to be part of an inter-state as well as international gang of statue smugglers.
On 26 February last year, the Bodhgaya police station had recovered 10 basalt statues of Lord Buddha from the residence of one Ghunghat Choudhary in Mastpura. Choudhary had later revealed the names of his accomplices, while confessing that they were involved in several cases of statue smuggling.
Shiv Kumar Mishra, curator at Buxar’s Sitaram Upadhyay Museum, who was a key witness in the case, said, “I had conclusively proved in the Gaya court that all the 10 basalt statues were over 1,000 years old, belonging to the Pala period. Three Buddha statues bear inscriptions (Buddha mantras) in Sanskrit language and Tirhuta script.”
While expressing concerns over the increasing stealing of rare statues, Mishra added, “The statue of Avalokiteshvara Buddha was stolen from Birpur in Begusarai, second from Gaya’s Kurkihar, third from a Saharsa museum, and another from a Shiv temple in Madhubani. All these thefts took place during the last 12 years, without any recovery so far.”
You May Like
Photos
