Vellore

Murugan, former panchayat president and a Christian convert, placed a cross on a land near Vinayagar temple at Muthampatti village on Wednesday. His action triggered a dispute between Hindus and Christians of the locality. The issue also evoked strong condemnation from locals and residents staged a road roko agitation demanding to remove the ‘Cross.’

Police on that day rushed to the spot and pacified the residents by saying that the matter could only be resolved by the revenue officials.

Since the issue was snowballing into a major agitation, Tirupattur tahsildar Sathyamurthy reached the spot and assured to survey the land. He promised that the ‘Cross’ would be removed if it was placed on the temple land. Following this, officials decided to keep the ‘Cross’ in their safe custody till the matter was resolved.

Though the officials planned to measure the land on Thursday, it was postponed by a day owing to some reason.

On Friday, officials surveyed the land in the presence of members of both sides. When the land was measured it was found that the ‘Cross’ was installed on the temple land.

Subsequently, the survey officials decided to erect a six-foot boundary stone. This led to a heated argument between both sides. However, Murugan’s supporters demanded that only a ground level boundary stone must be erected. Officials refused to budge to the demands and finally they erected a stone, after which the crowd dispersed.

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