No gold in idols of Ekambaranthar temple: IIT-M team

Five months after the idol wing cops alleged misappropriation of donation and fund by Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment official, chief sculptor and priest of Ekambaranathar temple in Kancheepuram in making of the two idols, a team of experts from IIT – Madras on Thursday inspected the idols to know if the said idols were made as per prescribed norms or not. 

After a thorough check of the idols using a US-made positive material identification (PMI) machine, it was found that there was not even a gram of gold in them.

As per norms there should have been 5.75 kg of gold (5 per cent of the total weight) in the two idols, the police claimed. The police team are trying to gather more evidences with the help of the IIT team. Earlier, in Dec 2017, the idol wing sleuths registered an FIR against nine people for alleged misappropriation of gold collected as donation to make idols for the Kancheepuram temple.