Chennai: The state government has issued an order transferring all idol theft cases in Tamil Nadu from the Idol Wing police to the CBI. On August 1, the day the government informed the Madras High Court of its policy decision to hand over all idol theft cases to the CBI as the idol wing was “not performing satisfactorily” the Home department issued the GO.
The GO, said, “the government after careful examination have decided to accept the proposal of the Additional Director General of Police, Economic Offences Wing, Chennai, as concurred by the Director General of Police, Tamil Nadu, to transfer all the under investigation cases being investigated by the special team constituted for the idol theft cases and all such future cases to the Central Bureau of Investigation.”
Factors like some cases having both domestic and international ‘ramifications,’ requirement of extradition in some cases and the involvement of central agencies as part of the investigation were considered for the transfer of the probe.
A special bench constituted to hear cases related to idol thefts had earlier directed IG Pon Manickavel to file a status report of the cases and posted the matter for further hearing on August 8.
Idols go missing in Kanyakumari district
Idols are not safe in Tamil Nadu, it appears. Monday saw the presiding deity of the famous Lord Shiva temple at Bhoothapandi near Nagercoil in Kanyakumari district disappear along with three other idols.
The incident came to light when the temple priest opened the door of the sanctum sanctorum for the morning poojas and to his shock found four idols missing. He immediately alerted the authorities. The idols date back to more than 200 years.
The temple is being administered by the State Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department. According to sources several thousands of idols, many of thousands of years old, have gone missing from the temples across Tamil Nadu.
When a batch of petitions came up for hearing before the Madras high court, the HR & CE had told the court that strong rooms would be ready in all the 3,087 temples by December-end next year.AG Pon Manickavel, IG of Police, who was appointed by the High Court to probe the case of missing idols, told the Court that he has no confidence on the officials of the HR & CE department. “Idols worth several hundreds crores of rupees are preserved in rooms fitted with locks costing just Rs 250,” the IG had told the court.
