With the arrest of four people, the Chamarajanagar police has made a major breakthrough in the Kichgutti Maramma temple poisoning case and uncovered a web of rivalry, deception and illicit relations.
On Wednesday, the police arrested four accused including the junior seer of Salur Math for allegedly poisoning the prasad, which was distributed to the devotees on December 14.
The first accused in the temple tragedy in Sulvadi village that claimed 15 lives and seriously injured over 100 others, has been identified as Devanna Buddi alias Immadi Mahadevaswamy (52), the junior seer of Salur Math (Male Mahadeshwara hills) and the president of the Maramma Temple trust. The other accused are Ambika(35) and her husband Maadesha(46), who is the temple manager and resident of Maartalli in Kollegal taluk, and Doddaiah Tambadi (35), a former priest of the Nagarakal (serpent god) near Kichgutti temple.
According to the police, Mahadevaswamy masterminded the plot and it was Ambika who procured the deadly insecticide and then, Maadesha and Tambadi mixed the poisonous substance in the rice preparation without the knowledge of the temple cooks.
The four accused, who had hatched the conspiracy with the intention of wresting control of the temple, are now in police custody.
A case was registered at the Ramapura police station on December 14, after 11 people died and many others were critical. The police formed five teams headed by DySP Puttamadayya to probe the incident. The investigating officers have now confirmed that as suspected earlier, the rivalry between two factions among the temple trustees had led to the crime.
Addressing a press meet in Chamarajanagar, IGP (South) K.V. Sharat Chandra, on Wednesday said, "We have arrested four accused, and investigations will continue as we need to probe if any more persons are involved, and we will record the statements of witnesses, especially the devotees, who are undergoing treatment. We are awaiting the forensic test results too.”
According to the police, Ambika managed to get two bottles of insecticide from a relative, an agriculture department officer, on the pretext that her garden had pests. On December 14, Maadesha, along with Tambadi, came to the temple kitchen where three cooks—Eeranna, Lokesha and Puttaswamy—had been preparing rice baat.
Maadesha sent the cooks out, asking them to wash the plates and cups to keep them ready before the senior seer Guruswami, other guests and devotees would come for the ground-breaking ceremony. When Eeranna and Puttaswamy returned, they noticed a strong odour in the food they had prepared. But Maadesha brushed their concerns aside, saying it was due to the strong masala powder used in the rice baat. Soon, people who ate the rice baat started complaining of stomach ache and vomiting and were rushed to the hospital.
Meanwhile, the agriculture department officer who watched news of the temple tragedy on television channels at his home, grew suspicious and called up Ambika to inquire what she had done with the insecticide. She reportedly confessed that she had poisoned the prasad on instructions from Mahadevaswamy.
During the probe, the police picked up Ambika's relative after local residents informed investigators that an agriculture department officer had visited Ambika's house a few days ago. The officer admitted that he had given the insecticide to Ambika for her garden but was not aware of what she planned to do with it. He also told the police that the day he had gone to give the insecticide bottles to Ambika's house, he had seen Tambadi with the couple.
The rivalry between Mahadevaswamy and the trustees had been brewing for years. But after the Kichgutti Maramma Temple Seva Samiti was registered as a trust in April 2017 and Mahadevaswamy lost control over the temple earnings, the rivalry only aggravated. Mahadevaswamy had no access to the temple earnings as the trustees' approval for using it was now mandatory. Then, Mahadevaswamy sought to build a gopuram (tower) to attract more devotees and revenue.
But a group of temple trustees—Chinnappi, Neelakanta Shivaachaari of Hondarabaalu and Shashibimba—opposed it. Eventually, the trustees agreed to build the gopuram but did not keep Mahadevaswamy in the loop while finalising the dates for the foundation-laying ceremony.
“An irked Buddi hatched a conspiracy to malign the trustees and take control of the temple. Around the same time, Doddaiah [Tambadi], a self-proclaimed priest used to perform fake pujas in Nagarakal and charge exorbitant fee for it. Chinnappi had warned Doddaiah against such malpractices and when Doddaiah got arrested for possessing 1kg of ganja by the Ramapura police and was detained for five days, Chinnappi fired him from the temple duty,” Chandra told reporters.
“Doddaiah turned bitter towards Chinnappi. Ambika took advantage of the situation and promised to appoint Doddaiah as the priest if he joined hands with her. She, along with Maadesha and Doddaiah, poisoned the rice baat,” added Chandra.
The probe also uncovered an illicit relationship between Mahadevaswamy and Ambika, who used to visit the Salur Math along with her husband. Mahadevaswamy had taken a house on lease in Martalli and given it to Ambika. He also appointed Maadesha as the temple manager and extended monetary help to the couple, too.
Incidentally, the temple conspiracy was also a bid to cut the senior seer of Salur Math down to size, say the police. Mahadevaswamy and the senior seer had been at loggerheads ever since the demise of the pontiff of Salur Math. Two decades ago, the senior seer succeeded the pontiff of Salur Math. This upset Mahadevaswamy, who was the nephew of the late pontiff.
After temple elders intervened and struck a compromise, the senior seer occupied the religious seat and got to keep the lands belonging to the Mutt, and Mahadevaswamy got control over the educational institutes. However, Mahadevaswamy was unhappy and used to bully and assault the senior seer.
Around the same time, a certain Dhomappa approached Mahadevaswamy, seeking help to wrest control over Kichgutti temple in Sulvadi, which was then under the faction that managed the Bhrameshwara temple in Baragur. Mahadevaswamy not only drove the Baragur members away but took total control of Kichgutti temple, but remained the president even after a eight-member trust was formed against his wishes.
Mahadevaswamy had hoped that by poisoning the prasad, he could get even with both the senior seer, and the Kichgutti trustees. But luckily for Guruswami, who had attended the puja ceremony, he did not consume the prasad.
But the magnitude of the tragedy was perhaps not what the four accused had imagined. Fifteen deaths have shattered families, while 23 people remain critical and 90 others are under treatment. The insecticide used was the deadly monocrotophos, which affects the nerves, confirmed an investigating officer.
“Swamiji hatched the conspiracy some 8-10 days prior to the ground-breaking ceremony to build a gopuram. He wanted total control over the temple and decided to tarnish the image of the temple trustees, especially Chinnappi, and also get them entangled in a criminal case,” Chandra told reporters.
IGP Sharat Chandra confided that the case was challenging, but the police got good leads as they sought to establish motives for the crime rather than chase people to figure out who had done it.
“From day one, we suspected it was not a case of accidental poisoning or a rat or lizard falling into the food. We focussed on why anybody would do such a crime... the motives. We were checking the background of Maadesha and got to know the antecedents of Swamiji and Ambika and got to know from the locals that an agriculture officer had visited Ambika a few days before the tragedy,” Chandra said.
“We questioned many people during the course of investigation. We learnt of the ongoing feuds between the seers and the factions too,” said Sharat Chandra.
