Panchaloha idols made without a drop of gold: Madras High Court stays case before Kancheepuram court

Madras High Court stays proceedings against officials accused of misusing gold donations for Kancheepuram temple idols.

The Madras High Court has stayed all further proceedings in a case pending against a former Commissioner of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department and eight others for having allegedly collected hundreds of sovereigns of gold from devotees of the Ekambaranathar Temple in Kancheepuram for making two Panchaloha (an alloy of five metals) idols, but not using even a drop of the precious metal in their making.

Justice M. Nirmal Kumar granted the interim stay following a petition filed by sculptor Muthiah Stapathy to quash the chargesheet filed against him. On finding that the former HR&CE Commissioner M. Veera Shanmuga Moni, who was an IAS officer had also filed a similar quash petition, the judge directed the High Court Registry to club both those pleas together and list them for hearing on April 17, 2026.

According to the prosecution, the ancient Ekambaranathar Temple in Kancheepuram had two Panchaloha (also called as Aympon in Tamil) idols for Lord Somaskandar and Goddess Ealavarkuzhali Amman. The 1,600-year-old idols, sculpted during the reign of the Pallavas, were made of an alloy consisting of five metals: gold, silver, copper, brass, and lead mixed together as per the Agamic principles.

It had been the practice since time immemorial to take these two Urchava Murtis (idols used for being taken on procession) on procession around the town for the darshan of devotees during specific occasions. In 2015, a devotee named S. Annamalai, 63, suspected some foul play in the temple administration with respect to the two idols and approached the police for the registration of a First Information Report (FIR).

When his efforts did not fructify, he obtained a specific direction from a judicial magistrate to the police and only thereafter, the Siva Kanchi police registered a FIR against all nine named accused on December 10, 2017. The case was thereafter investigated by the Idol Wing CID for a few years before it was re-transferred in August 2022 to the Siva Kanchi police, which filed a chargesheet against all nine accused in July 2023.

The police charged IAS officer Mr. Moni, the then Additional Commissioner of HR&CE Department M. Kavitha, the then official temple sculptor Muthiah Stapathy and six Sthanikars of the temple – Rajappa Gurukal, J. Senthilnathan Nayar, J. Krishnamoorthi, N. Shankara Nayahar, S. Barath Kumar, and S. Vinoth Kumar – with having entered into a criminal conspiracy to replace the two ancient idols with new ones.