Three persons were arrested after the seizure of a Queen Victoria’s statue and a dog made of ‘astadhatu’ (eight metals) in Odisha’s Jajpur district,police said today.
The statue of Queen Victoria is 16 inch in height and weighs 5.2 kg and the dog’s statue is 6 inch in height and
weighs 3.6 kg, the sources said.
We had information that an antique smuggling racket was operating from a hotel in Jajpur Road. We conducted a raid
recently and seized the antique statues, one of Queen Victoria and another of a dog standing behind her,” Jajpur
Superintendent of Police Deepak Kumar said.
Kumar said the statues would be examined by the Archeological Survey of India and antique experts.
Three persons Ashok Sahu (47), Niranjan Behera (35) and Suryamani Biswal (40) of Bhubaneswar, were arrested from the
hotel at Vyas Nagar, he said.
The three were produced before a court yesterday which remanded them to judicial custody for two weeks.
—————————PTI