The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department on Thursday informed the Madras High Court of having appointed retired judge K. Venkataraman to head a fact-finding committee constituted to investigate the complaint of theft of a peacock idol holding a flower on its beak from the Kapaleeswarar Temple at Mylapore in Chennai and replacing it with a fake idol holding a snake.
Appearing before Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy, who were seized of a public interest litigation petition filed by Rangarajan Narasimhan of Srirangam, Advocate-General R. Shunmugasundaram said a Government Order appointing the retired judge to the fact-finding committee was issued on Wednesday and that it would require six weeks to complete the probe.
After taking note of the submission, the judges adjourned the case for hearing to Tuesday when they would decide whether the present idol holding a snake should be replaced with a new idol holding a flower because as per the legend, the peacock had actually used flowers from Punnai tree to worship Lord Shiva and therefore the sanctum sanctorum came to be known as Punnaivana Nathar Sannidhi.
The judges asked the petitioner as well as the other parties to the case to present material in support of their stand on the issue and the material would be referred to Agama Sastra experts before taking a final decision.
