Chennai: An association of employees of the Hindu Religious Charitable Endowments department, yesterday welcomed the state government’s order transferring all idol theft cases to the CBI and pledged its full cooperation.
Federation of All HR and CE Associations state President N L Sridharan said the officials of the department, which administers several temples in the state, were ready to give full cooperation for a “fair and impartial” probe.
Referring to arrests of some officials in connection with the idol theft cases, he charged that they had been detained without proper investigation. “As part of a crackdown on idol thefts many of them, including senior government officials, are being arrested. But arrests are made based on frivolous complaints without proper investigation,” he alleged.
HR and CE Additional Commissioner M Kavitha was arrested last week by Idol Wing of the Crime Branch CID on suspicion of her involvement in misappropriation of gold and funds collected for making of two idols at the Sri Ekambareswarar temple in Kancheepuram.
“We request that a fair investigation be taken up before making arrests… We welcome the government’s decision to transfer idol theft cases to CBI. We have confidence in the central agency,” Sridharan told PTI.
The Tamilnadu government had last week issued an order transferring all idol theft cases from the idol wing police to the CBI, a decision flayed by the opposition DMK.
The GO, said factors like some cases having both domestic and international ‘ramifications,’ requirement of extradition in some cases and the involvement of central agencies as part of the investigation were considered for the transfer of the probe.