Villagers booked for Prabhakaran statue

Nagapattinam: The Velankanni police have registered a case in connection with the installation of a statue of the slain LTTE supreme, Velupillai Prabhakaran, at the Sesharaya Ayyanar temple in South Poiganallur in Nagapattinam district a few days ago.

A police team visited the temple and conducted inquiries, and booked cases against a few villagers including a ruling AIADMK functionary Manickam.  The controversy over the statue arose, as LTTE is a banned organisation in the country.

Police said, a case was booked under IPC section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) based on a complaint of   Saminathan, village administrative officer of South Poigainallur.

The police named N. Manickam of the village as the accused for having disobeyed the order and erecting the Prabhakaran statue. The 50-year-old Manickam is the branch secretary of the AIADMK’s ‘Amma Peravai’ in the village.

The villagers had decided to construct the temple for Goddess Periyanayagi Amman well within the premises of Sesharaya Ayyanar temple complex six months ago and had constituted a committee to be headed by Mr Manickam and comprising few other villagers, police said.

However, when a group of villagers offered worship to the statue of Prabhakaran on Friday, the statue suddenly disappeared in the wee hours of Saturday.

The villagers and LTTE supporters had argued the police might have removed the statue, but the latter denied it and said that the villagers themselves had removed the statue.