Priest cons 25 women of 95 sovereigns

Police identified the accused as Anandan (28) from Aminjikarai, priest at the Muthukarumari Amman temple in Ponnuvel Thottam near Aminjikarai. He had been priest at the temple for nearly eight years.

According to police, he won the confidence of the devotees in the locality over the years. During the last few months, some women approached Anandan asking his help to sort out issues, including marital trouble, children, debts and other family problems.

As remedy and also to ‘ward of evil spirts’ he asked them to bring gold ornaments, along with other pooja articles like coconut and flowers.

After the women handed over the offerings to him, Anandan would place the gold jewels in a container and kept it inside the temple. After 21 days, Anandan would ask them to bring handful of rice grains and place them in the container. They would be given the container that has gold ornaments, would be asked not to open the container for another 21 days and do pooja daily. When they opened the container after 42 days, they found that the ornaments had vanished. The devotees confronted Anandan, but he told them that the gold had vanished because they failed to perform the rituals properly.

Based on complaints from at least 25 women, the Aminjikarai police registered a case and arrested Anandan. A probe by the police found that he had stolen around 95 sovereigns and gave the jewels to different pawn brokers, who were summoned by the police for inquiry.