Acting swiftly, the district police have cracked the Thiruvadanai temple burglary case by arresting three accused and recovering four century-old idols, hidden in a waterbody.

Ten days after burglars struck at the ancient Adhi Rathineeswarar Temple at Thiruvadanai in Ramanathapuram district on April 20 and decamped with the idols, special teams, after launching technical surveillance, arrested the accused near Melur in Madurai district on Thursday night.

After interrogation, police recovered the idols of Vinayagar (66 cm), Chandrasekar (69 cm), Bhavani Amman (56.5 cm) and Asthiradevi (49 cm) dumped in a waterbody, four km away from the temple on Friday and launched a hunt for two more accused, Superintendent of Police N. M. Mylvahanan said.

Intercepted at Melur

Soon after the burglary, the special teams zeroed in on Mageswaran, an ex-offender, and tracked the movements of the accused by mounting technical surveillance, the SP said.

The teams almost burst the case when they found that the accused had used a Maruti Omni and tracked the registration number.

After they alerted all toll gates right up to Chennai, the Kottampatti Special Sub Inspector of Police Velusamy found the vehicle passing through the toll gate near Melur on Thursday night and intercepted the vehicle between Melur and Madurai, the SP said.

The SSI, accompanied by a constable, detained three accused, while two others escaped, he said.

As part of their modus operandi, the accused had dumped the idols in the waterbody. After assessing the value of the idols, they planned to recover them for sale, the SP said.

Police identified the accused as Pandi, Prabu and Subramani, all hailing from Ramanathapuram district, and launched a hunt for Mageswaran and his accomplice.

The special teams zeroed in on Mageswaran, an ex-offender, and tracked the movements of the accused by mounting technical surveillance