15 held for stealing 1000-kg granite Nandi idol from temple in AP
Rajamahendravaram (AP), Feb 2: Fifteen people were arrested Saturday in connection with the recent theft of a 1000-kg 'Nandi' idol from an ancient Shiva temple in East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, police said.
A special police team arrested the 15 after investigations into the theft of the granite idol from the 400-year old Agastheswara Swamy temple in Ramachandrapuram on the night of January 24.
The culprits had stolen the granite idol believing rumours that diamonds were in it.
They had taken the idol to the banks of a canal in the district and dismantled it, but found no precious stones.
It was suspected that more people were involved in the theft, Circle Inspector Siva Ganesh said.
"We formed teams and launched a through inquiry. We collected information from locals and obtained clues that led to the arrest of the 15 people," he said.
The theft of such a heavy idol had sent shock waves among the devotees.
Temple officials, who lodged the complaint with police, had suspected involvement of a large number of people in the crime, saying it could not have been moved by a few.
The temple did not have a closed circuit TV system, police said adding further investigation was on to find out how the gang had carried away the idol.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
