The Madras High Court on Monday ordered that the police investigation as well as a fact-finding inquiry instituted by Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department into the theft of Punnai Mara Nathar (holy peacock) idol from the Kapaleeswarar Temple in Mylapore must be completed within six weeks.
Acting Chief Justice Muniswar Nath Bhandari and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu passed the interim orders on a 2018 public interest litigation petition filed by Rangarajan Narasimhan of Srirangam. The litigant had claimed that the idol went missing since 2004 and that it had been replaced with a fake idol which was being worshipped now.
However, in one of the reports filed before the court in March 2019, the then HR&CE Commissioner, K. Phanindra Reddy, told the court that the peacock idol could have been replaced even before the 2004 Kumbabhishekam (consecration) of the temple. Referring to certain records, he had claimed that the change of idol might have occurred before March 31, 2003.
After a lull for a couple of years due to COVID-19, when the PIL petition was taken up for hearing now by the first Division Bench presided over by the Acting Chief Justice, Advocate General R. Shunmugasundaram said the HR&CE Department had halted the fact-finding inquiry to avoid any clash between it and the police investigation.
He said the department was ready to commence the inquiry under the chairpersonship of an Additional Commissioner and complete it within six weeks. Similarly, State Public Prosecutor Hasan Mohammed Jinnah too told the court that Idol Wing CID would file its final report within six weeks though the original idol could not be recovered.
