CHENNAI: The idol wing CID of the state police has registered a case against 11 people, including seven Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment (HR&CE) department officials, in connection with the theft of six

from two temples in Thanjavur district, including Pasupatheeshwarar temple at Pandanallur near Thiruvidai Marudhur.

The priceless idols date back nearly 1,500 years, said sources, adding that this was the first time HR&CE officials have been booked in an

case.

The Madras high court recently re-appointed inspector general of police A G Pon Manickavel as

in idol theft cases handled by the idol wing CID in spite of his being transferred as IGP, railways.

Pon Manickavel, who now holds additional charge as investigation officer in the idol wing CID, and his team swung into action and managed to identify idol smugglers and those who helped them stealing the idols from the Pasupatheeshwarar temple, and Idumbeshwarar temple at Shri Rangarajapuram, in Thanjavur district.

Preliminary inquiries revealed that HR&CE officials failed to bring the missing of the idols, said to be worth several crores of rupees, to the notice of their higher-ups. Inquiries revealed that K Kamaraj, executive officer of Arulmigu Shree Pasupatheeshwarar Temple in Pandanallur, noticed that idols of Vinayagar, Pushpakarani, Valli, Deivayani, Chandrasekar Amman of the Pandanallur temple, and a Vinayagar idol of Idumbeshwarar temple were missing in 2013. However, he failed to report this to his senior officers and gave a clean chit to the then HR&CE commissioner.

As the officer didn’t even lodge a complaint at the local police station, he has been deemed to have been deeply involved in the case. In a report submitted before the Madras high court, the idol wing CID police officers said that they registered a case against 11 CE officials, including Gajendran, joint commissioner of HR&CE in Mayiladuthurai, Gnanasekaran, assistant commissioner of HR&CE in Kumbakonam, K Kamaraj, executive officer of Pasupatheeshwarar temple, K Raja, head clerk of the Pasupatheeshwarar temple, Sekar Gurukkal and Jagatheesh Gurukkal, and a temple employee, apart from the trustees of the Pasupatheeshwarar temple Pasupathi Pillai, Manohar Pillai, Ramachandran and Saravanan.

Based on the complaint of R Venkataraman, 62, a resident of

, the idol wing CID registered a case under the IPC Sections 457 (2) (trespass), 380 (2) (theft) and 202 (Intentional omission to give information of offence by person bound to inform).

The idol wing team has started investigating into the missing of the stolen idols.