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

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.

Foul play suspected

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.

Donation of gold

The chargesheet read that on December 31, 2015, a notice board was placed in the temple soliciting donation of gold by the devotees for sculpting the new idols. Many devotees, including those who had come from foreign countries, had donated their gold jewellery, such as chains, bangles, and bracelets, after they were accorded special respects, but none of them had been issued with any receipt for the donations.

The police had identified some of the donors and recorded their statements confirming that they had indeed donated gold jewellery for making the idols. The police stated that the witnesses had donated over 312 sovereigns of gold for the purpose but not even a pea-sized piece of gold had been used to make the two new idols. The police also said, many other donors were not willing to come on record to disclose their donations.

The chargesheet also highlighted that though 5% of the total weight of the idols must have been made of gold, an examination of the new idols by the Department of Metallurgical and Material Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and also by an accredited private laboratory in Chennai revealed that not a drop of gold had been used to make them.

Now, urging the court to quash the chargesheet, Mr. Muthiah Stapathy said, while disposing of his previous plea to quash the FIR, Justice G. Jayachandran of the High Court had ordered transfer of investigation from the Idol Wing CID to the Siva Kanchi police station in 2002 with a specific direction to re-investigate the matter within 90 days. However, no such re-investigation had been conducted, he complained.

In his petition, Mr. Moni, too, raised a similar ground for quashing the chargesheet and accused the Siva Kanchi police of having filed the chargesheet based on the probe conducted by the Idol Wing CID without conducting a thorough re-investigation into the matter. He also contended that the police had failed to obtain government sanction before initiating the prosecution against him.

Published – April 06, 2026 12:28 pm IST