CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday rapped top officials of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) Department for their alleged lapses in extending cooperation and making available facilities to the court-appointed Idol Wing Police headed by Inspector General of Police A G Pon Manickavel.
“I will have to order a CBI probe into the pending idol theft cases, if the authorities fail to execute their responsibilities,” Justice R Mahadevan said. Appropriate orders were passed about six months ago, but they have not been complied with by the officials, the judge said, warning that he would summon the Chief Secretary and the HR & CE Commissioner if the orders are not complied with in two weeks.
The judge made these oral observations on two separate petitions from advocates R Venkataraman and ‘Elephant’ G Rajendran seeking transfer of investigation into all pending cases of idol thefts to the CB-CID. The matter was adjourned till January 24.
The judge on July 21 last year overruled the transfer of Manickavel out of the Idol Wing Police and directed him to head the wing again. He also ordered the transfer of all idol theft cases pending before various courts in the State to the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Kumbakonam for their speedy disposal on a day-to-day basis.
The HR&CE Department was directed to submit a report on the number of temples under its control and the list of archakas in each temple to Manickavel with a specific direction to the officer to prosecute the delinquent officials if prima facie a case was made out.