CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday took a serious view of photography and videography being resorted to inside the precincts of the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangam. Expressing displeasure over the same, division bench of the court comprising Justices R Mahadevan and P D Audikesavalu restrained Rangarajan Narasimhan, the petitioner in the alleged idol theft case, from either photographing or videographing the idols. The petitioner, a Vedic scholar in Tiruchy, can at best, visit the temple like any other devotee and doesn’t enjoy anymore privileges than that, the court observed.
The bench made the observations during the course of hearing in the alleged idol theft case. If he has any grievances, he should file an application before the court and a copy of which should be provided to the opponents. The next hearing is scheduled for November 1. Meanwhile, the Idol Wing-CID of Tamil Nadu Police led by Inspector General of Police A G Pon Manickavel, submitted a report in a sealed cover to the High Court. The division bench ordered Pon Manickavel to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the case.