Ex-army man drops ₹4 crore worth of property documents in temple hundi amid dispute with daughters

When authorities of Arulmigu Renugambal Amman temple, which is maintained by HR&CE Department, in Padavedu village near Arani town in Tiruvannamalai opened a ‘hundi’ for counting at 12.30 p.m. on Tuesday, they were in for a huge surprise — they found bundles of original property documents that is worth of around Rs four crore.

Officials of HR&CE said that it is a traditional practice for four to five members of the temple to count the cash offerings by devotees’ once in two months. The temple has a total of 11 hundis in its premises. As per routine, they opened the ‘hundi’ placed in front of the sanctum sanctorum of the temple when they found property documents along with other offerings like coins and currency notes.

They also saw a hand-written document by the devotee that it had been willfully donated to the temple by him. “This is the first time such an incident has occurred in the temple. Even if the documents are dropped in hundi, the asserts do not automatically come under the department. The devotee has to register it with the department for it to stake claim on the property,” M. Silambarasan, Executive Officer (EO) of the temple, told The Hindu.

HR&CE officials identified the devotee as S. Vijayan (65), a retired army man and native of Kesavapuram village near Arani town. He was an ardent devotee of Renugambal Amman since childhood. He has two daughters, who are married and living in Chennai and Vellore.

After a disagreement with his wife V. Kasturi (56), Mr. Vijayan has been living alone in his house for nearly a decade with no support from his family, temple officials found during an inquiry. Further inquiry also revealed that in recent months, Vijayan has been pressured by his daughters to transfer his properties to them.

Temple authorities said that two property documents dropped in the hundi are that of 10 cents of land and a single-storey house near the temple. Officials said that documents cannot be handed over to the devotee as senior HR&CE officials have been informed about the incident to decide on it. Till then, the department will be custodian of the property documents, officials said.

“After consulting temple officials, I will register my properties to the temple as per law. I will not go back on my word. I was humiliated by my children for daily upkeep,” Mr. Vijayan said.