Priest critical after fall in temple

Venkatesh, 53, lost his balance and fell off from the elevated platform after garlanding the idol. “He garlanded the idol with tulsi leaves and was looking for something when he lost balance and fell off from the platform from a height of about 11 feet,” said a temple official. 

The incident happened right in front of devotees who were watching the puja. In a video, captured by one of the devotees that had gone viral, the priest could be seen falling upside down from the elevated platform.

“The head of the priest had directly landed on the floor causing critical injuries. Never before such an incident had happened in the history of the temple,” said a staff.  

The severely injured priest was immediately rushed to a private hospital, where he is undergoing treatment in a critical condition. “He had suffered a hemorrhage in the head and surgery has been performed to remove the clot,” said the official. 

Though Venkatesh was not a regular priest on the rolls, he was there to assist his brother Natarajan, who was a priest at the shrine run by HR & CE department. The ‘Anjaneyar’ idol, carved out of a single stone and believed to be existing from the 5th century, is one of the tallest Hanuman idols in India.