The seized sculpture is believed to be 100 years old and belongs to the royal family of Singapore

JAIPUR/AJMER: The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on Saturday has busted a gang dealing with ivory sculpture and arrested five persons in this connection from Ajmer.

The dealers were about to sell the sculpture which is believed to be 100 years old and belonged to the royal family of Singapore. ATS, along with Civil Lines police in Ajmer, were interrogating the accused to find if they are part of international nexus of idol and sculpture smugglers. ATS have also recovered one turtle from the house of one of the arrested accused. The sculpture was also been seized by the sleuths of ATS.

Umesh Mishra, ADG, ATS and SOG said that they got inputs through electronic surveillance and from local sources that some persons with an ivory made antique sculpture were planning to sell it off in Ajmer.

“After it was properly verified our men got in touch with the gang members and acted as customers. Thus, our team invited all the five accused in a hotel with the sculpture where they quoted a price of Rs 1.25 crore. However, we accepted to pay them Rs 40 lakh to ensure that they will fall in the trap,” said Biju George Joseph, Inspector General of Police, ATS who was supervising the operation told TOI.

All the accused were arrested from a hotel where ATS team as customers invited them. “The arrested accused were identified as Ram Chander Chaudhary, a native of Ajmer, Mahendra Charan and Sheru Singh, natives of Beawar, Bhajan Singh, a native of Sikar, and Surya Kant Sharma, a native of Srimadhopur. One more accused identified as Ghanshyam Singh Charan who is part of the gang is likely to be arrested,” Joseph added.

A senior officer, said, “We spoke to them as customers and started showing our desperation to buy the sculpture. Finally, we gave a nod to pay them Rs 40 lakh which they agreed.” Meanwhile, the ATS while checking the home of one of the accused also recovered a turtle. “It appears that the gang is also involved in selling and purchasing the skins of protected animals. We will investigate this aspect too during the interrogation,” said Joseph.

Police have registered a case under appropriate sections of IPC against all the five accused and added sections of Wildlife Protection Act against one of the accused.

“They claimed that the sculpture is 100 year old and actually stolen from the Queen of Singapore, during then. It is a matter of verification and authentication,” the officer added.

