A team of officials from the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR and CE) Department, Salem region, visited Chennai recently to inspect the idols seized by the State Idol Wing CID Police from a house in Chennai.
On the direction of higher authorities, the local HR and CE officials launched a survey in 4,000 temples attached to the department in the districts of Salem, Namakkal, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri to identify missing idols.
A total of 26 idols of Gods and Goddesses – seven panchaloha idols, 12 stone idols and seven bronze idols – are missing from 21 temples.
The stone idol from Kumarasamy Vinayakar Temple in Dharmapuri district; bronze Chakrathazhvar statue from Nainamalai Varadarajaperumal Temple in Namakkal district; bronze statutes of Sivan and Parvathi from Jalagandeswarar Temple in Krishnagiri district; panchaloha idols of Dharmarajar and Troupathi Amman from Hosur Therpettai are the among the 26 idols missing.
Based on these records, a three-member officers’ team visited Chennai recently and inspected the idols seized from the premises of Deenadayalan, the kingpin in the idol smuggling racket.
The officials had with them photographs and other details of the missing idols. However, the idols stolen from the Salem region were not found among those seized in Chennai.
Another inspection
Official sources said that another team from Salem would visit Chennai soon to make one more inspection of the idols, before coming to a final conclusion.
