The Madras High Court on Thursday summoned Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Commissioner to explain why a fact-finding inquiry instituted in 2018 to probe the theft of Punnai Mara Nathar (holy peacock) idol from Kapaleeswarar Temple in Mylapore, Chennai, was not completed till date.
Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu directed the Commissioner to join the virtual court from the office of a Special Government Pleader on Monday.
They said the department ought not to have stopped the inquiry just because the police had taken up parallel investigation.
The judges called for the case diary from Idol Wing-CID since it was reported that the police were unable to pin down the mastermind behind the theft since the crime was committed before 2004 whereas the First Information Report (FIR) was registered only in 2018 following a complaint lodged by Rangarajan Narasimhan of Srirangam.
During the hearing of a writ petition filed by the complainant in 2018 and pending since then, State Public Prosecutor Hasan Mohammed Jinnah told the court that the Idol Wing CID had completed the probe except for recovering the original idol. Stating that 85 witnesses were examined so far, he said 90% of the investigation was over.
Only a few more witnesses had to be examined and then the agency would file a final report before the court concerned within three to four months.
Asked about the details of the probe conducted so far and whether anyone had been pinned down, the SPP said the needle of suspicion was pointing towards N. Thirumagal, the then Executive Officer of the temple.
When the judges wanted to know whether the kingpin in the offence had been identified since the HR&CE official might have only aided the commission of the crime, the SPP replied in the negative.
Invites judge’s ire
“That aspect is still under investigation,” he said, prompting the ACJ to retort: “Then, what is the purpose of investigation. You are totally wasting time.”
On his part, Mr. Narasimhan told the court that the police had not even enquired with him although he happened to be the complainant in the case. Similarly, the HR&CE department had discontinued its fact finding inquiry in 2019 citing COVID-19, he complained. He told the court that Ms. Tirumagal was now the Additional Commissioner of HR&CE department.