Srirangam temple idol theft case: Madras High court orders probe

The Madras High Court on Thursday ordered a probe on the petition filed by one Rangarajan alleging theft of idols from the Srirangam Ranganathaswamy temple.

Rangarajan submitted a petition in Madras High court on October 13, 2017 that he gave a complaint at the Srirangam Police Station about ex-facie theft of idols, doors and other antiquities in the temple at Srirangam.

He alleged that the Sub-inspector without assigning any reasons refused to register the FIR. With no response coming forth from the Police Commissioner despite handing over the plea in person and sending via e-mail and post, there was neither any communication nor FIR registered till date.

On coming to know that the Madras High Court has specially designated the Inspector General of Police, to investigate Idol thefts in Tamil Nadu, the petitioner moved High Court seeking for a direction to register the FIR on his complaint.

The state government on July 31 informed the High Court that the idol theft cases were transferred to CBI since the performance of Manickavel was unsatisfactory. Moreover, the advocate argued that Manickavel did not submit even one report on progress made in idol theft cases.

However, 20 days after the Tamil Nadu government transferred the idol theft cases to CBI, the High Court announced that IG Pon Manickavel should head a special team to complete probe of lot more pending idol theft cases across the state.