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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 State public prosecutor on Tuesday apprised the Madras High 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.

The bench of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D.Bharatha Chakravarthy was also informed that the Idol Wing-Crime Investigation Department had decided to take the assistance of experts from the Anna University to ascertain the availability of the mechanism with which idol can be traced and taken out without much damage to the temple tank.

To this, court allowed the Anna University experts to take efforts to trace out the idol.

Court said, “The Anna University to take efforts to trace out the idol, if exists under the tree or under the tank. If the idol is traced out, appropriate order thereupon for installment of the idol at the same place would be made with all due rituals.”

Notably, the Commissioner of Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments Department 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 stated that the idol of the peacock was having flower in its beak.

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

Accordingly, court ordered, “If the idol is traced out, appropriate order thereupon for installment of the idol at the same place would be made with all due rituals. However, if it is not traced out, a direction can be given to replace the existing peacock idol with a new peacock idol with flower in its beak.”

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