Five Thieves Convicted for Stealing Ancient Buddha Idols from Bodh Gaya  

Patna: A court in the Gaya district of Bihar on Monday convicted five thieves involved in stealing ancient Buddha statues and votive stupas to smuggle them out of India. The court punished them with five years of rigorous imprisonment as well as a fine of Rs 1 lakh each one the five convicts.

All the convicts were booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 413 (Habitually dealing in stolen property) and 414 (Assisting in concealment of stolen property).

On February 26, 2022, a police team from Bodh Gaya police station Mastanpura village and recovered three sacks containing idols and votive stupas.

Three persons were arrested from the spot. Arvind, Shamshad and Amit were also present at Ghunghat’s residence. Basing on the information spilled by these four, police raided at Par Nawada village under Bundelkhand police station in Nawada district to arrest another person along with recovery of a few more ancient statues.

The case was put on “speedy trial”. The recovered antiquities could have fetched several crores of rupees in the international market.

Three of the seized Buddha statues were rare and exquisite, made of black basalt stone. One of them is two feet tall while another is a foot and seven inches in height. Both have Sanskrit inscriptions in the Tirhut script of Buddhist mantras. Both could be dated back to the ninth century AD.