Police register fresh case over missing idols at Pasupatheeswarar temple

The complaint was lodged by Venkatraman, a resident of Pandanallur, who took the issue of missing idols to the court. Earlier, he had filed a petition with the Madras High Court, in which he appealed the court to direct the police to file a case against the nine individuals for tampering facts and helping idol smugglers. 

The petitioner stated that the officials had altered the stockroom of the temple and placed the idols there, thus helping smugglers to steal them. The smugglers had stolen the panchaloha idols from the stock room. 

Subsequently, the court directed the local police to register a fresh case against the nine persons. 

Based on the direction, the Pandanallur police registered a fresh case against the nine persons on Friday night.

While an earlier inspection led by Idol Wing Inspector General AG Pon Manickavel revealed that around 60 idols had gone missing, police could only account for six missing idols as temple officials had failed to record the idol stocks in their register. Furthermore, the register was not shown to the investigating officers.