Earlier, it was just the temple pond that went missing, but now, another allegation has risen that an entire temple has been sold off.
Former police officer, Jebamani Mohanraj, recently approached the Madras High Court with a complaint that a famous temple in the neighbourhood has been sold by its hereditary trustees.
The 400-year-old Agastheeswarar temple is situated at North Mada Street, a posh residential locality in the area.
The Madras High Court early this year had directed the HR&CE Department to furnish the whereabouts of 50,000 acres of prime temple lands across Tamilnadu which have been mysteriously disappeared from the documents and records.
“The Agastheewarar Temple has been sold off by the temple trustees without the concurrence and authorisation of the HR&CE Department,” alleges Jebamani Mohanraj, the petitioner from Vadapalani.
Mohanraj, who took voluntary retirement from government service, said, “Though he had filed a petition in the Madras High Court in 2014 to know the status of 50,000 acres of prime temple lands, the HR&CE Department was deliberately delaying the case by not filing its response in spite of the directive of the court.”
Mohanraj said as per a government order, no one could sell temple properties. “But this rule has been violated with impunity since 1967. About 300 grounds of land owned by the temple have been sold with the connivance of HR&CE staff,” he charged.
“Land records available with the government state that the property belongs to the temple. As per market value, the land is worth Rs 1,800 crore,” said Mohanraj, who had also served the CBI as an investigator.
Not only Agastheeswarar Temple, in July this year, Mohanraj brought to the notice of the court that he believes that 26 residential and five commercial buildings were built over Vengeeswarar Temple tank at Vadapalani.
The government lawyer claimed that the tank was transferred to a private party by one of the former trustees with the connivance of the HR&CE Department. But the matter got murkier when the court asked how permission was granted to build such structures on a waterbody. In 2005, the tank showed clearly on Google Earth.