Tibetan couple held in Delhi for stealing rare Buddhist idol

New Delhi, June 5:  Delhi Police on Monday arrested a Tibetan couple from north Delhi’s Majnu Ka Tilla area for trying to sell a 900-year-old idol of Lord Buddha which they stole from Tawang district of Aruchal Pradesh. Police said the couple — Ngawang Tsundue, 29, and his live-in partner Lobsang Gakey Sherpa, 26 — were arrested around 10.30 a.m. by a team of Crime Branch sleuths during a raid on a tip-off. The couple had come to sell the stolen idol to a prospective buyer for Rs 1.40 crore near a Gurudwara in Majnu Ka Tilla area. Tsundue is a resident of Kangra in Himachal Pradesh, while Sherpa stays in Punjabi Basti in Majnu Ka Tilla area, according to police.

“On the intervening night of May 31 and June 1, Tsundue stole the idol of ‘Terton Pema Lingpa’ from the house of head Cheepa of Sangyeling gompa in Tawang of Aruchal Pradesh.

“Police teams received a tip-off on June 4 that the racketeers involved in the theft of idol having high religious and spiritual value are trying to sell it in the grey market in north Delhi. The complaint also said that the idol would be smuggled to Tibet for monetary gain,” Verma said. (IANS)