After inspection, DSP Jeyakumar said a conspiracy was hatched to steal the ‘Navapashanam’ idol of Murugan here. Muthiah Sthapathi hatched the plot to steal the idol, he told reporters in Palani.

Following complaints of irregularities in sculpting the idol and the alleged conspiracy behind an attempt to replace the main idol of Sri Dhandayuthapaniswamy temple in Palani in 2004, a special team of the Idol Wing was formed to probe into such irregularities.

The panchaloha idol of Lord Murugan weighing 200 kilograms was installed at ‘Abishekamurthy’ near ‘Moolavar’ of the temple premises on January 25 in 2004 and reportedly removed on June 7 the same year.

After such irregularities were reported, sculptor Muthaiah Sthapathi, former Joint Commissioner of the HR&CE department, KK Raja, and former Commissioner of HR&CE P Dhanapal were arrested, sources said.