Kanchi idol case: Sthapathi to appear before CID police

While restraining the idol wing CID police from arresting Tamil Nadu Chief Sthapathi M Muthaiah, one of the suspects in the criminal case for hiving off 5.75kg of gold from the Somaskandar idol of Ekambaranathar temple in Kancheepuram, the Madras High Court on Wednesday directed Muthaiah to appear before the investigating officer for 10 days and cooperate with the inquiry.

Justice R Mahadevan , passing an interim order on the anticipatory bail plea moved by Muthaiah, said, “Let the petitioner appear before the CID police in their office at Tiruchy for 10 days from February 2. A decision on the bail application can be arrived later.” The judge then adjourned the plea.

Earlier, when the plea came up for hearing, IG A G Ponmanickavel, who was present in the court, opposed the bail application, saying that the suspect was absconding for over a month and custodial interrogation of the accused might be required.

Denying the allegations, counsel for Muthaiah submitted that he had utilised the amount of gold necessary for sculpting panchaloga idol and is ready to cooperate with the probe.

Claiming that he had no role in the heist and that the CID police had not produced any material evidence against him, Muthaiah prayed for anticipatory bail.

In December 2017, the idol wing sleuths registered an FIR against nine people for alleged misappropriation of gold collected as donation from devotees at the Ekambaranathar temple in Kancheepuram.

The nine include temple executive officer Murugesan, chief temple sculptor Muthaiah, sculptor Masilamani and temple priest Rajappa.

The issue came to light when a devotee made an inquiry about the gold received through an RTI application to which the temple officials replied that no account was kept on the gold received. Following this, the devotee approached the court resulting in a probe and subsequent registration of FIR.