7ft-tall nandi, 5 antiques tumble out of businessman closet

CHENNAI: Officials of the idol wing CID branch on Sunday conducted searches at antique collector Ranvir R Shah’s apparel manufacturing unit near Guindy Race Course and

seized

six huge, mostly metal-plated idols, including a 7ft-tall nandi, a 6fttall narasimhar, a 5ft-tall gomatha, and an

elephant statue

.


The searches come nearly a month after 23 idols and artefacts were seized from a guesthouse belonging to KCP Sugars and Industries Corporation in which Shah and Kiran Rao, another suspect in the idol theft case, were independent directors.

“We have filed case against 14 people including Ranvir R Shah and Kiran Rao. We will take steps to ascertain the age of these pieces with the help of ASI officials,” said DSP Sundaram.

Shah’s lawyer K Thangarasu, however, told reporters that they have documents to prove that the statues were made recently and were not

antiques

.