Madurai: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday inspected the Meenakshi Amman temple here and examined the Veera Vasantharayar Mandapam, which was badly damaged in a fire on Friday last.
The four-member NIA team lead by an officer in the rank of an SP, Mr. Ramesh Kumar Patel examined 7,200 square feet inside the Mandapam and 42 shops that were damaged in the fire.
The team has examined various issues including whether there was any security lapses that had caused the accident.
“During the annual security screen, the NIA team would examine whether the temple has adhered to security protocol issued by them. But this time as the major fire accident had cause serious damages to stone structure of the 15th century Veera Vasantharayar Mandapam, they are examining it from security point of view,” said a senior police officer on the request of anonymity.
The fire and rescue services department personnel extinguished the fire before it spread to the thousand pillar hall and celestial wedding hall which was located close to that Mandapam.
“The NIA will spend the next two days inspecting the temple and will file a report on the fire accident to the Central government,” said an official source.
