Madras HC: File report on probe into missing peacock idol

The first bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice PD Audikesavalu issued the direction while hearing a plea by Rangarajan Narasimhan, who wanted a direction from the court to the government to recover the peacock idol that went missing from the temple many years ago.

“Kapaleeswarar temple had a peacock idol with a flower in its mouth. However, it went missing during the consecration festival in 2004. Miscreants have replaced the original idol with a fake one and doing rituals for the replaced idol. It is against the sacred rules (Aagama Vidhigal) of the temple. While the original peacock had a flower in its mouth, the duplicate one installed by the authorities have a snake-like figure in its mouth,” the petitioner argued.

He said he had filed a complaint and the case has been pending. The government has issued an order to recover the idol, but it has not happened yet, he said. “Therefore, a committee headed by a retired judge should be formed to find the whereabouts of the original peacock idol,” he noted.

However, the government counsel submitted that the State had formed a fact-finding committee to probe the issue and added that the investigation was under way.

Recording the submissions, the bench questioned the government about the delay in submitting the report of the fact-finding committee. “What were the fact-finding enquiry and investigation officers doing for the last three years,” the ACJ asked the government counsel.

The bench then directed the HR&CE Department to submit a status report on January 24 detailing the outcome of the fact-finding enquiry and also explaining the progress of the investigation to recover the missing idol.