Ten-member gang trying to sell it for Rs.5 crore arrested

Mysuru :

In a meticulously planned and precisely executed operation, sleuths attached to the District Police, seized a 410 year-old Quran, written during Mughal ruler Akbar’s period in the district and also arrested a gang of 10 members who were allegedly trying to sell it for Rs.5crore.

Police have also seized a Ford Ikon car (MH02 AK-4967) from the gang

The nabbed have been identified as S. Nagaraju of Sindhanur, A. Muralikrishna of Sasalamai Camp, Kanakappa Kambli of Yerebeleri village in Gadag district, Kallappa Kambali o Kalaburgi and Sanath of Kollur in Udupi taluk, Ravindra, Vijayendra of Hosanagar in Shivamogga district, Prasad of Heggodu in Sagar taluk, Bhaskar of Sindhanur and Raghu of Karwar.

Addressing a press conference at his office in city yesterday, SP Abhinav Khare said that Police, who came across a video on the antique Quran that the gang was sharing with prospective buyers formed a team to trap the gang.

The Police team, posing as prospective buyers approached five members of the gang near the Railway Station in Hosa Agrahara in K.R.Nagar taluk in the district and nabbed them before nabbing the remaining members in Mysuru city, he said and added that the accused had confessed to have got the antique from some persons in Hyderabad promising to share the proceeds of the sale with them.

Additional SP Kala Krishnaswamy, Rural Dy.SP Vikram Amte led K.R.Nagar Inspector H.N.Siddaiah, DCIB Inspector Gopalakrishna, Saligrama SI Poonacha in the nabbing and seizing operations.

Meanwhile, noted historian and former Vice-Chancellor of Mangalore and Goa Universities Prof. B. Sheikh Ali, who was present at the press conference described the calligraphy as a 604-page book, each separated by a butter paper for better preservation as a piece of Exquisite Art adding that writing in the Quran is legible.

Continuing, Prof. Sheikh Ali said ‘It was written in 1959 of the Hijri calendar, which works out to 1605 A.D. This was around the period when Mughal rule was at its peak in India and the time when Akbar was succeeded by Jahangir.”

He further said that though there is no other information on the last page other than the year in which it is written, there is a sentence that says that the calligraphy is dedicated to the saints.

Interestingly, SP Khare removed his footwear while holding the Quran to pose for photograph before the Quran was carefully placed in a carved wooden stand and covered with a cloth.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / Wednesday – August 12th, 2015