Ancient silver valuables weighing seven-and-a-half kilograms of a temple near here have gone missing from the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department safe vault.
The missing of 51 precious silverware belonging to the Sri Varadaraja Perumal at Thirumangaichery near here came to light when the Idol Wing police, led by Inspector General of Police Pon Manickavel, were conducting inquiries and enumerating the idols and valuables stored in the vault at the Sri Pasupatheeswarar temple at Pandhanallur near here.
Over the years, the HR & CE Department deposited several ancient temple icons and valuables at a special vault created in the shrine in the face of threats idol lifters and smugglers posed to idols of 73 temples in remote villages in the vicinity.
As per official records, there were 273 icons in the Pandhanallur temple safe. During a routine check way back in 2013, six bronze icons belonging to Sri Viswanatha Swamy temple at Keezhamanakkudi and Sri Idumbeswarar temple at Srirangarajapuram had gone missing. The case registered by the local police was transferred to the Idol Wing that expedited the investigation after Mr. Pon Manickavel took charge.
Police recently arrested four persons, including two senior HR&CE Department officials, in connection with the incident.
Last Thursday, the police roped in village elders and local temple custodians to enumerate icons at the Pandhanallur safe vault after Idumbeswarar temple trustee Sriraman claimed that the Manikkavasagar icon there was not the original bronze piece, but a brass icon that weighed just half the original idol.
Further investigations at the vault revealed that the Sri Chandrakeswarar bronze icon belonged to the Sri Kalahastheeswarar temple at Kadiramangalam, while its Subramanyar icon had been replaced with another icon for record’s sake.
On Friday, the reconciliation of records revealed that of the 54 valuable ancient silverware belonging to the Sri Varadaraja Perumal temple in the Thirumangaichery safe only three were available and it was brought to the notice of the police.
Speaking on the developments, temple trustee Lakshmanan said in 1984 the village elders and temple trustees had handed over the 54 silver articles for safekeeping.
They were returned in 2004 when the samprokshanam (kumbabishekam) of the temple was conducted. Now when we were reconciling the records and the articles we find that only three of the 54 silver articles were available in the safe.
Sources connected with the investigations say that they would be seeking custody of the arrested officials to get the clues for tracing the missing articles and icons.
