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Into the case of the disappearance of a statue of a peacock from the Arulmighu Kapaleeswarar Temple in Mylapore, Chennai, the Tamil Nadu State Government on Thursday submitted before the Madras High Court that a Fact Finding Committee under the Chairmanship of retired judge Justice K Venkataraman has been constituted to probe the matter.

The Commissioner of the Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments Department filed a status report in this regard. The matter is being heard before the division bench of  Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D.Bharatha Chakravarthy.

The affidavit also states that six weeks' time is required for completion of the enquiry and submission of the report to the Government for taking further action. Notably, on January 31, 2022, asking the Advocate General to find out as to what was originally existing in the beak of the peacock; and what is in existence now in the beak of the peacock, instead of the flower as alleged by the petitioners, Court had directed for the completion of the fact-finding enquiry within six weeks from that date.

The matter is listed to be next heard on April 5, 2022. 

Earlier, on March 1, the State public prosecutor had apprised the court that the lost idol may be lying in the Mylapore temple tank. However, the petitioner in this case, Rangarajan Narasimhan claimed that the idol is under a tree.

Also, the Commissioner of the HR&CE Department had submitted before the court there was no photographic evidence of the peacock idol having flower in its beak. However, the Archakas of the temple and former Professor of Tamil & Philosophy, University of Madras had alleged that the idol of the peacock was having flower in its beak.

Therefore, to resolve the issue, Court had agreed with the request to replace the present idol with a new peacock idol with flower in its beak, following the due rituals.

The case is linked to the alleged theft of an idol of a peacock from Punnaivananathar Sannidhi in Kapaleeswarar temple in the year 2004. The allegation is that the original peacock carrying a flower on its beak had been shifted out of the temple during its consecration in 2004 and replaced with an identical idol of the bird holding a snake on its beak.

Case Title: Rangarajan Narasimhan v. The Board of Trustees And 6 Others