Bench directs Collector to restore stolen idols in Madurai

They were reportedly lying in the property room at the district court premises

The Madras High Court Bench here on Wednesday directed the Madurai Collector to take steps for restoring a local temple’s idols that were stolen about 20 years ago and reportedly lying in the property room of the district court campus ever since they were recovered by the police within months after their theft in April 1992.

A Division Bench comprising Justice R. Banumathi and Justice G.M. Akbar Ali passed the order while disposing of a public interest litigation petition filed by B. Vijay Karthikeyan, a lawyer and a devotee of Sri Gopalasamy Temple situated on a hillock in Ayyan Paraipatti, a village close to T. Kallupatti on the Madurai-Rajapalayam highway.

The judges directed the lawyer to file a representation to the Collector seeking his intervention in the matter. In turn, the Collector was ordered to take steps for restoring the idols by filing an appropriate application before the lower court concerned under Section 452 (power of criminal courts to order for disposal of property after conclusion of trial) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

According to the petitioner, three idols of the temple, a metal crown, a pedestal, kumbam and other articles were stolen on April 14, 1992. The T. Kallupatti police registered a case with regard to the incident and arrested five individuals. After trial, a Fast Track Court here sentenced all the five to seven years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs.1,000 on each of them.

It also ordered that the idols and other articles should be handed over to the Collector either before the lapse of the limitation period for preferring appeal or after the disposal of the appeal if the convicts happened to prefer any. Thereafter, disposing of an appeal filed by the convicts, the High Court set aside the trial court judgement and acquitted all the five accused on February 21, 2007.

Though the individuals got acquitted, the articles continued to be in the property room of the district court as no one took any efforts to restore them in their original place. Resultantly, the regular temple functions such as Vaigasi Pournami Natukadu Thiruvizha, Porattasi Ayindhu Girivalam, Krishna Jeyanthi Oorvalam and Chitra Pournami Girivalam were affected for the last 20 years, the petitioner claimed.

Only recently, the advocate took upon himself the task of finding the whereabouts of the idols. He made applications under the Right to Information Act to the Collector as well as the Principal District and Sessions Judge to know the status of the idols and later learnt that steps were being taken to handover the idols to the Collector only after the receipt of the RTI application.