2 AIADMK ministers involved in Tamil Nadu idol theft case, claims High Court-appointed special officer | Photo Credit: PTI

Chennai: In a stunning disclosure, Kalaignar TV, the mouthpiece of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, named two top ministers in the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the ruling party in Tamil Nadu, involved in idol theft case, a day after Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Ponn Manickavel made stunning charges at the Madras High Court. Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) minister Sevvoor S Ramachandran and forest minister Dindigul Srinivasan are those named in the case.

The claim rattled the ruling AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu. Manickavel, the special officer in the idol theft case, has been probing the case for two years now and has uncovered and solved many idol smuggling cases in the past.

Manickavel's counsel while hearing the case, informed the HC that two sitting ministers are involved in idol smuggling.

The Madras High Court has asked the officer to submit all the evidence and adjourned the matter till August 6.

Several valuable idols from Hindu temples have gone missing over the years and court-appointed Manickvel as a special officer to investigate the matter.

In an earlier statement, Manickavel accused the state government of lackadaisical approach towards the recovery of smuggled statues from the state and cases pertaining to it.

Referring to a nine-month-old request that he made to former Director-General of Police (DGP) Rajendran for funds to bring back a smuggled Nataraja idol from Australia, Manickavel said it could not be brought back due to inordinate delay.

