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A trial court in Tamil Nadu's Kumbakonam on Tuesday convicted international antique dealer Subhash Chandra Kapoor and five of his accomplices to 10 years imprisonment in the Udayarpalayam burglary and illegal export of 19 antique idols valued over Rs 94 crore to the Art of the Past Gallery, New York, USA, the state idol wing CID said on Tuesday.
The special court judge also imposed penalty on all the six accused -- Subash Chandra Kapoor, Sanjivi Asokan, Marichamy, Packiya Kumar, Sri Ram alias Ulagu and Parthiban -- under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including Section 120 B (criminal conspiracy).
Kapoor, a US national, was arraigned as first accused in Udayarpalayam police station for his alleged involvement in burgling and illegally exporting 19 antique idols totally valued above Rs 94 crore to the Art of the Past Gallery, owned by him.
He was detained by the German police on October 30, 2011, at Cologne Bonn airport based on a Red Corner Notice issued by the Interpol and was handed over to IW CID police, Chennai, on July 13, 2012, at Cologne Bonn airport and extradited to India to face charges in the Udayarpalayam case.
He was remanded to judicial custody by the judicial magistrate, Jayankondam, Ariyalur district, on July 14, and is currently lodged at Central Prison, Trichy.
Kapoor had illegally sold some of the stolen idols to various museums and private art collectors throughout the world.
"Subsequently, he was arraigned as an accused in four other idol theft cases which are pending for the concurrence of the Government of Germany to prosecute him in these cases also," a release from the idol wing CID said.
He is facing trial in cases at Vikramangalam, Veeravanallur, Palvoor and Virudhachalam.
In the past, Kapoor filed not less than seven bail applications and discharge petitions before the high court and they were all dismissed. He had filed various applications before the trial court under one pretext or the other to delay the trial.
In the present case, about 56 witnesses were examined. Evidence from the prosecution side and defence witnesses were closed on September 29, 2021, and May 9, 2022, respectively.
In the meantime, two more idols stolen by Kapoor were repatriated to India on June 1 this year and the same were received from the ASI New Delhi by the IW CID police, Chennai, recently, and handed over to the special court, Kumbakonam.
Kapoor had earlier filed a petition before the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court, Kumbakonam, in 2020 to recall and cross examine 17 prosecution witnesses. This petition was dismissed by the court on December 3, 2020. However, he challenged the dismissal order in the high court of Madras (Madurai Bench) in 2021 seeking to set the order aside.
The prosecution had filed a counter affidavit. The matter was pending before the Madurai bench for a long time and was recently heard, and Kapoor’s plea was dismissed. Following this, the trial commenced at the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court, Kumbakonam, and all the accused in the case were convicted by chief judicial magistrate D Shanmuga Priya on Tuesday.
"The idol wing has obtained a befitting conviction for Subhash Kapoor and co-accused in Udayarpalayam case. Criminals most often do not get punished due to poor investigation by the police. Idol wing, therefore, took steps to reduce the number of acquittals through measures to prevent witnesses from turning hostile, appropriate guidance to investigating officers and proper follow-up action," the release said.
Due to such improvements in the investigation standards of the idol wing brought about through the personal efforts of the senior officers of the wing, a major dent could be made in the outcome of the cases under trial.
"On August 29, 2022, chief judicial magistrate D Shanmuga Priya heard six cases listed for that day in the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court and pronounced conviction for the accused in all the six cases that came up for judgment before her, which is a record in the wing's history," the release claimed.
The IW CID DGP K Jayanth Murali announced a befitting reward to ADSP central zone Balamurugan and his team for expediting the trial in the high profile Kapoor case despite mounting pressure due to diverse dilatory tactics adopted by Kapoor and other co-accused to delay the trial and the attendant breach of assurance given by the government in extradition proceedings to the German government, the release said.
The rewards will be presented to the team once the rains subside this week.