4 held for stealing silver palanquin from Sankarankovil

It is one of the few temples in the state to have both Shiva and Vishnu at the sanctum sanctorum. Gold and diamond jewels worth several crores of rupees along with silver elephant, silver peacock, gold and silver palanquins and so on were kept at the temple. Sources said that the silver palanquin had been used on a daily basis to take the Lord outside the temple, but it was replaced by an ordinary palanquin as the silver one was too heavy to carry. 

In the meantime, in December 2016, Joint Commissioner (JC) of the temple Pon Swaminathan got transferred to Sivaganga district and a new JC Chelladurai took over. 

When Chelladurai checked the objects in the temple, he found the silver palanquin and some key documents along with it were missing. Following that, he informed Pon Swaminathan and lodged a complaint with the Sankarankovil police. The case was shifted to the Idol Wing Police and recently the investigation picked up. 

Idol Wing IG AG Pon Manickavel, along with Tirunelveli SP Arun Sakthi Kumar, carried out the investigations about the missing silver palanquin and zeroed in on four persons. The four were identified as Raja, Kalidas, Thilagaraja, all temporary staff in the temple and Nagaraj, a silversmith. 

Further probe revealed that the silver palanquin was melted down and was converted into silver bars. A major portion was sold out and only two kgs were found with Nagaraj. Along with the four persons, the two kgs of silver were also seized.