CHENNAI: A special bench of the Madras High Court has issued a notice to the Sarabhai Foundation on a PIL petition praying for a direction to the Idol Wing personnel to seize 36 idols, three bronze lamps and eight artefacts, kept in its custody at its museum in Ahmedabad.
The bench of Justices R Mahadevan and P D Audikesavalu, before which the PIL from advocate ‘Elephant’ G Rajendran came up for hearing on Thursday, ordered the notice, returnable in two weeks. According to petitioner, he had visited the museum and was shocked to notice a number of idols of Hindu Gods kept there. The idols were huge in dimension, particularly in respect of the height and weight. Such idols were meant only for public worship in Hindu temples for about 1,000 years, he claimed.
The idols of Natarajar, Umahemavathi and Kalyanasundarar and other deities were ‘stolen ones’ coming within the ambit of section 410 of the IPC. The Foundation has also admitted that these idols belong to Tamil Nadu.