Chennai: The police have recovered a 1.5ft Ardhanareeswarar idol, found abandoned inside Kailasanadhar temple in Kancheepuram, on Monday night.
According to police sources, the 10kg bronze idol was found near Gangaiamman temple on Kailasanadhar temple premises.
“The devotees found the idol in the evening and informed the Siva Kanchi police who rushed to the spot and retrieved the idol,” the police said.
As the idol was found at a time when the allegations of misappropriation in making idols to the Kancheepuram temples, the police took a serious note of the incident and retrieved CCTV footages from the temple.
“Footages showed two men in a two-wheeler with a sack and returning without the load,” the source said. Meanwhile, the police found that former
councillor Panneerselvam and his son Mahendiran were the ones found in
the CCTV.
They were questioned. “Panneerselvam had reportedly told that his son had bought the idol during a pilgrimage and kept in the pooja room of his house.
Since his relatives insisted that keeping Ardhanareeswarar idol is ominous to family, he abandoned the idol in the temple,” the police said. Police kept the idol inside the temple and posted police personnel for the safe-keeping of the idol until the completion of the investigation.
