Shivalinga appears before court after summons sent to Chhattisgarh temple

RAIGARH: In a bizarre incident, a Shivalinga, which was uprooted from a temple in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh, was brought to the Tehsil office here to appear before the court after a summon was issued against the Shiva temple by the revenue officials.

A few days ago, the revenue officials of Raigarh had given notice to Shiva temple to appear in the court. On March 25, the villagers uprooted the Shivalinga at Shiva temple in Raigarh and carried on a cart to present it in the court. However, the hearing was cancelled and the date of hearing was set for April 13.

"Our villagers and a Shiva Temple were given the notice to appear before the court by a Tehsil Office and a fine of Rs 10000 was also imposed. So we appeared in the court with the Shivalinga. But after waiting for hours, a notice was posted that the next hearing will be on April 13. We were not informed about this earlier. Sudha Rajwade, who is a resident of our village had moved the petition to the High Court. We urged her not to do this but she refused and said that she is a government official and is doing her work," said local councillor Sapna Siddar.

Shiva temple at Kauvakunda in Raigarh town was served a notice complaining of illegal occupation.

The Tehsil office had also issued a notice to villagers and summoned them. The Tehsildar had also warned everyone in the notice that failure to appear at the hearing could result in a Rs 10,000 fine and eviction from the premises.

The incident came to light after a petition was moved in the Chhattisgarh High Court regarding illegal possession of government property by Sudha Rajwade, a government official, after which the administration issued a notice.