At present, the Karnataka department opens the Hundis (collection boxes) once in three months.
A day after the horrific triple-murder of priests at a centuries-old temple in Karnataka’s Mandya, Srinivasa Poojari, the Minister of Muzarai (Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowment) on Saturday said the Karnataka government will take steps to open temple hundis (collection boxes) once a month to avoid such tragedies. At present, the Muzarai department opens the Hundis once in three months and collects the accumulated cash offerings. But in the case of Arkeshwara temple, located on the outskirts of Mandya city, the hundi had not been opened for the last ten months. As a result, the 'hundi' contained a large amount of cash, and during an attempt to steal the same, the three priests are believed to have been murdered. According to the police, the hundis are opened especially in presence of Muzarai department’s assistant commissioner which is a must for an "A" category temple while a Tehsildar's presence is required in "B" category temples. Speaking to reporters after handing-over the Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia cheque to family members of the deceased in Mandya, Poojari directed the department Commissioner Rohini Sindhuri to take steps to repair dysfunctional CCTV cameras inside and outside temple premises. Read: Three priests found murdered in 12th century temple in Karnataka’s Mandya "Since March, the entire state has been in the grip of the pandemic. In particular, it was Mysuru which was affected adversely. As a result, entire government machinery was completely busy with tackling the pandemic and the district administration's priorities changed. Hence, the hundi collection was not taken out. The assailants must have sensed this and decamped with the hundi cash by killing three priests," an officer added. "The Arkeshwara temple has a custom that a family which performs the first pooja is only entitled to carry out the pooja in this temple. Over the centuries the family has grown to such an extent, each of the family members gets only two or three days in a year to be the priests of this temple," the officer explained. Meanwhile, speaking to IANS, Superintendent of Police, K Parshuram said that the police have formed special teams to probe into the murder and circumstantial evidence indicates that it was murder for gain. “Based on our clues we are tracking a nomadic gang, we have kept a close watch on the movements, I am hopeful that culprits will be nabbed soon," he added.
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