MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras HC on Friday directed the Thanjavur Collector to remove the statue of ‘Periyar’ E V. Ramasamy located near the Arulmigu Brahmmasirakandeeswarar Temple in Kandiyur in Thanjavur district within four weeks.
A Division Bench of Justices P Velmurugan and K K Ramakrishnan was hearing a plea filed by Rama Ravikumar, who stated in his petition that the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) had installed the statue of ‘Periyar’ E V Ramasamy in front of the temple.
The statue, which is surrounded by political flags, also bears inscriptions of one of his speeches in which he had proclaimed that there is no God. Such inscriptions are wholly inappropriate when exhibited within temple property and directly in front of a Hindu place of worship, Ravikumar said.
In the previous hearing, the court had directed the Thiruvaiyaru Tahsildar to inspect the statue and file a report on its origin, location, and other details.
During the hearing on Friday, the Tahsildar submitted that the statue is located on poramboke land and was shifted to its present location during road expansion. The temple authorities submitted that the statue is located on their property and that they had objected to its installation at the time. Hearing the submissions, the judges directed the Collector to safely shift the statue to another location.
