Four priests at the Vana Badrakaliamman Temple in Thekampatti near Mettupalayam were on Thursday night for taking home donations on plates, TOI has reported.

A police officer said the four were caught on CCTV camera taking home the donations that devotees leave on their plates.

US Kailasamurthy, assistant commissioner, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department, and the executive officer of the temple, said the temple priests were bound to deposit the donations that they receive on their plates into hundi. “There is a government order to this effect. The Madras High Court too has backed the practice and ordered to consider the entire donations, including the collections on the plate, as a temple’s revenue,” he was quoted as saying by the TOI.

He said the temple administration had installed a CCTV camera to monitor the priests to see if they were depositing the collections on the plate into hundi. “The four were not following the practice,” Kailasamurthy said in his petition which he lodged before the Mettupalayam judicial magistrate court a few months ago.

Earlier on March 14, the court had directed the Mettupalayam police to take appropriate action against the priests and the temple trustee, who supported them. Subsequently, police registered a case against the the four priests, and the trustee of the temple.

The priests were arrested on Thursday night and remanded in judicial custody on Friday.

(With inputs from Times of India)