Debris and excavators are visible next to the shrine of the Golden Triangle Muneswarar Kuil in Kuala Lumpur, November 10, 2013. — Picture by Choo Choy May

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 11 — Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor defended today City Hall’s demolition of illegal extensions to the Sri Muneswarar Kaliyaman Hindu temple at Jalan P. Ramlee yesterday, claiming the place of worship may have been used as a “facade” for illicit activities.

The Federal Territories minister also said Sri Muneswarar Kaliyaman — which its devotees say have been around for 101 years — was only a “shrine”, and does not meet the religious requirements to be labelled as a full-fledged temple.

“The problem is we don’t want certain quarters to take advantage behind the facade of any temples, surau, churches,” Tengku Adnan told reporters here.

“You see that’s the problem with some of the temples, they’re using the temples to hide certain things. They’re doing a lot of illegal things,” he later added.

The minister, however, refused to elaborate on the type of illicit activities he had alleged had been carried out within Sri Muneswarar Kaliyaman, saying he did not want to antagonise the Hindu community.

The minister also said his ministry had asked a Hindu “sami”, or priest, from India, based here, to examine the Sri Muneswarar Kaliyaman temple before Deepavali this year, and claimed the monk was shocked at the condition of the house of worship.

“The sami was appalled. He said the temple should’ve been demolished that day itself,” Tengku Adnan related, claiming the Hindu holy man had found bottles of liquor in the temple’s bathroom.

“He said in his language: ‘This is a disgrace to my religion’.”

Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor said a Hindu monk from India, who examined the Sri Muneswarar Kaliyaman temple before Deepavali this year, was shocked at the condition of the house of worship. — Picture by Zurairi AR

Tengku Adnan also claimed that his ministry had made another visit to the temple during the recent Deepavali festival, and found that there were purportedly only six people praying in the temple during the day.

He further declined to elaborate on the pre-Deepavali visit by the Hindu priest, and another visit post-Deepavali by his “men”, saying only that the details were “his business”.

The minister also refuted claims that there had been no notice issued before the demolition yesterday, nor was there a meeting scheduled with Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) on November 19 to discuss further actions regarding the temple.

MIC Youth social and welfare chairman Arvind Krishnan claimed yesterday that there was supposed to be a meeting scheduled for this November 19 with Deputy Federal Territories Minister Datuk Loga Bala Mohan to discuss the status of the temple.

Sri Muneswarar Kaliyaman secretary WM Nalini also said yesterday temple officials were not informed of the demolition work, claiming that no explanation was given to them by the authorities.

A demolition squad from the local authority, accompanied by police, was said to have turned up at Sri Muneswarar Kaliyaman at around 7.30am yesterday to tear down its extensions.

According to Nalini, DBKL tore down the Sri Muneswarar Kaliyaman’s kitchen, priest’s court, washroom and meeting room while smaller statues were moved to the main shrine that was left intact.

Nine people were arrested last September 1 during a scuffle between protesters and DBKL officers on duty to move statues of deities erected in the annexe.

Earlier in September, Tengku Adnan promised that the government would not tear down the temple, saying that only a small portion of the canteen and an illegally erected restaurant adjacent to the temple would be demolished.

He added that the government would foot the bill to beautify the temple compound and put up a fence on its perimeter.

Tengku Adnan appeared to have peddled backwards today, saying that around RM50,000 for the beautification project will be spent by the developer instead.