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Kochi, Oct 27 (IANS) After a person, who said he made many of the artefacts, which were claimed as centuries old antiques by the arrested fake antique dealer Monson Mavunkal, these pieces have become evidence in the case and need to be produced before the court, but a major question has arisen that whether these can be stored at the present place itself.
According to sources in the know of things, there are about 500 artefacts which have been kept for display at Mavunkal's house cum museum, the Crime Branch police probe team is all set to approach the trial court, since it's practically impossible to carry these 500 odd artefacts to be produced before the court. The police have said that they 'wish if an additional chief judicial magistrate comes to the 'museum' and takes stock.
The probe team is expected to approach the court for this either on in the day or on Thursday.
Incidentally, this peculiar situation has risen after a person Santhosh, who supplies similar objects for film shootings complained to the police that Mavunkal owes him around Rs three crore for the various purchases that he made from him for the various artefacts of his.
And on Tuesday a team of probe officials brought Mavunkal to his museum and is understood to have taken a preliminary stock of the artefacts and verified the claims made by Santhosh.
Eyebrows were raised soon after the arrest of 54-year-old Monson Mavunkal by the Crime Branch police from his home cum museum last month after victims approached Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan with their complaints that they were swindled of Rs 10 crore by this master 'fraud', who managed to even take the top most Kerala Police officials for a ride.
Mavunkal took all his high profile guests into his fold by showcasing antiques in his collection which he claimed included the "staff of Moses" and "two of the 30 silver coins that were taken by Judas to cheat Jesus Christ".
Police said that he had showcased these "rare" items -- a throne said to be used by Tipu Sultan, as well as a huge collection of old Qurans, Bibles (Old Testament and New Testament), and old handwritten copies of Bhagavad Gita.
Mavunkal used to bring several VIPs to his palatial residence, a part of which was converted into a museum to house his 'precious' antiques.
Mavunkal is presently under judicial custody.
--IANS
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