Stolen artefacts: Cops to raid another warehouse

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Jaipur: A day after centuries-old artefacts, mostly war items from ancient times, estimated to be worth Rs 100 crore in the international market, were confiscated from a rented accommodation in city's Tilak Nagar area, the cops are to search one more warehouse belonging to the notorious smuggler Anurag Tiwari. The warehouse is located at Adarsh Nagar and the government railway police (GRP) suspects that a bigger haul of artefacts may be hidden there. The warehouse has been sealed and will be searched after the archaeological survey of India made an inventory of the items seized from Tilak Nagar-based flat on Thursday.

"We have sealed a warehouse maintained by absconding smuggler Anurag Tiwari in Adarsh Nagar. The warehouse is situated in Natraj Apartments. We believe more artefacts may be recovered from there," said a senior police officer.

The ASI team from Mumbai had carried out a search at a flat belonging to Tiwari in Tilak Nagar on Thursday and recovered precious artefacts including precious stones, ancient paintings, Manu scriptures, a handwritten Gita and Quran, and war items (mostly various kinds of sharp or pointed objects). The handles of these sharp objects are of ivory and `ashtadhatu' (a combination of eight metals).


"Some of these artefacts could be from Mughal era. The ASI team is still in Jaipur and analysing these artefacts," said the officer.


The artefacts are suspected to be stolen from forts and sites of historical importance across the country. In Rajasthan too, there had been thefts from ancient temples and forts recently and in majority of these cases, the police failed to recover them.


The Thursday raid was conducted two months after the Government Railway Police (GRP) in Jaipur came to know about an international gang of wildlife smugglers while they were investigating the case pertaining to the confiscation of rhino horns in February at Jaipur Railway Station from a Maharashtra-based man identified as Shankar Rao.


On further investigation, GRP men came to know of a man, Manoj Choudhary, who was staying at Abhishek Tiwari's rented accommodation in Tilak Nagar. GRP men then sought help on the case from the Enforcement Directorate (ED), CBI's wildlife branch and the ASI. It then came out that Shankar was working for Tiwari, who under the guise of his import-export agency Himalaya Export was smuggling antique items overseas. GRP men then arrested Choudhary, seized the rented accommodation in Tilak Nagar and sought help of the ASI to examine the items in sealed wardrobes after which the ASI confiscated the centuries-old artefacts.
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