CHENNAI: M Muthaiah, the TN government chief Stapathy, who feared arrest in connection with the case relating to alleged misappropriation of 5.75 kg of gold from Somaskandar idol belonging to Sri Ekambaranathar temple in Kanchipuram, has been directed by Madras High Court to appear before Idol wing CID for 10 days and co-operate with the inquiry.
Let the petitioner appear before the CID police in their office at Tiruchi for 10 days from February 2. A decision on the anticipatory bail application can be taken later, Justice R Mahadevan said on Wednesday while passing interim orders on the petition.
Earlier, when the plea came up for hearing, IG A G Ponn Manickavel, who was present in the court, opposed the advance bail plea saying that the suspect was absconding for over a month and his custodial interrogation was necessary.
Denying the allegation, P L Narayanan, counsel for Muthaiah, submitted that his client had utilised the quantity of gold necessary for sculpting ‘panchaloha idol’ and he was ready to co-operate with the prosecution.
The idol wing sleuths registered an FIR against nine people for alleged misappropriation of gold collected as donation from devotees at the Ekambaranathar temple in Kancheepuram in December last year.
The nine include, besides Muthaiah, temple executive officer Murugesan, sculptor Masilamani and temple priest Rajappa.
The temple had received gold for the consecration of Somaskandar and Amman idols. Temple officials, who were supposed to use 5.75 kg of gold in the two idols, failed to keep an account of the gold collected from devotees. The issue came to light when a devotee made an inquiry about the gold received through an RTI application to which the temple officials replied that no account was kept on the gold received. Following this, the devotee approached the court.
