Three arrested with antique idol

LUCKNOW - Three men were arrested in Uttar Pradesh with an ‘ashtdhatu’ (eight-metal) idol of Lord Buddha that had been smuggled from Nepal, police said Thursday.

Zabir, Mustakeen and Shahid, all in their mid 30s, were nabbed late Wednesday from Barhaganj in Kushinagar district. The value of the idol was put at Rs.3 crore.

“The three told us that the idol belongs to a Buddhist temple in Nepal,” police inspector Anil Pandey said Thursday in Gorakhpur, some 300 km from Lucknow.

The three, nabbed while going to New Delhi with the idol, belong to Mau and Azamgarh districts.