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Madras High Court on Thursday slammed State’s Idol Wing of CID for not showing any degree of seriousness to recover century-old stolen temple idols and jewellery which have gone missing from pending case diaries in police stations.

The Court was hearing a matter pertaining to 41 case diaries related to theft cases of century-old temple idols and jewelry having been gone missing from police stations,

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P.D.Audikesavalu, said,

“It is no coincidence that 41 CDs pertaining to theft of idols or artefacts from temples go missing…. If there is an Idol Wing of the CID, some results need to be shown by such department.”

Taking note of department’s irresponsible attitude, court further stated that it appears that the Idol Wing of the CID is not receiving the kind of attention that it deserves.

Court said that the responsible authorities should be relentless in their pursuit of the stolen idols and artifacts and treat the matters with a greater degree of seriousness than appears now.

A report had been filed jointly by the Additional Director General of Police and the Superintendent of Police in the Idol Wing, CID before the court. It revealed that  41 case diaries went missing from the police stations where complaints of such thefts had been lodged.

Report read that twenty-five of the missing CDs have been traced and the Idol Wing is pursuing the matters. Sixteen CDs are yet to be traced or recovered, it added.

However, Court noted,

“The report does not reveal any degree of seriousness on the part of the investigating agency to recover the stolen properties or to bring the culprits to book.”

Court said that it is only in a few stray cases that some of the idols have been recovered. Court added, "but in the majority of the cases detailed in the report, the idols do not appear to have been recovered".

It also came on record that in one such case only, recovery of the idols and the conviction of the accused has been done. To this court noted that the missing case diaries must be recovered and the matters must be pursued relentlessly.

A PIL was filed by one Madras High Court lawyer, Elephant G.Rajendran alleging among other things that more than 40 Case Diary files relating to the theft of century-old temple idols are missing and there is huge misappropriation of temple jewels. He got this information from the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Idol Wing CID, Guindy, Chennai under Right to Information Act.

In his petition, Rajendran had enumerated various events of such theft including missing of a Natarajar idol, which is more than 1000 years old which is now being kept safe by Andhra Pradesh State.

Case Title: Elephant G.Rajendran V. The Secretary And 3 Others.