The Ashtdhatu idols of Mahakaali, Mahalaxmi and Mahasaraswati were allegedly taken by the four, part of an international gang of idol smugglers, Faizabad District Magistrate Deepak Agrawal and Senior Superintendent of Police Ramit Sharma said.
"After hard work of one month finally we got solid information on Monday morning that idols of Devkaali temple are being transported from Kanpur to Gorakhpur, from where the idols will be smuggled to international market through Nepal. Our team nabbed the gang on Faizabad-Gorakhpur highway," Sharma said.
Karamjeet Maurya, Vijay Narain Pandey, Subhash Kumar Yadav and Jai Pujan Sharma were held, however, three other alleged gang members managed to escape, he said.
The recovered idols have been verified by the chief priest Girija Prasad Pathak of the temple, he said.
