puducherry sleuths of tamil nadu idol wing cid raided a handicraft shop near auroville following a tipoff and seized seven antique metal idols and artefacts reportedly stolen from tn temples several years agoduring the raid on friday the wing headed by dgp jayanth murali found seven priceless antique idols hidden in the shop the shop owner k ramachandran 42 did not possess any documents authorising the legal custody of these antique idolsit all began when the team seized a document of the archaeological survey of india asi which declared that an idol of ardhanareeswarar produced by the shop on september 6 in 2016 is suspected to be an antique one this document confirmed that the shop was peddling antiques when the team intensified the search the antique idols which the owner had clandestinely concealed inside the shop came tumbling out when the search ended the idol wing team seized seven ancient idols said a release from the idol wingthe seized items were a 116cmtall bronze idol of ardhanareeswarar two metal idols of ardhanareeswarar each measuring 60cm left wrist of one idol was broken a 126cmtall bronze idol of goddess sivagami a 122cmtall bronze idol of lord krishna a 22cmtall bronze idol of buddha and a 34cmtall metal idol of mullumailavaganam peacockthe idol wing registered a case and commenced investigation on how the idols were stolen from places of worship and the people involved in the crime the team produced the seized items for remand before the additional chief judicial magistrate kumbakonam on saturday the team will produce the idols before the asi for inspection and will forward a report to the hindu religious and charitable endowment for identifying and handing over the idols to the temples they belongit may be recalled that the idol wing on september 13 seized 20 antique artefacts from the residence of a french national in auroville identified as dana auro after the wing received information that a shop named auro rachan was illegally trying to sell stolen antique artefacts from tamil nadu