Tirupur: A special team led by revenue officials suspect that nearly 7 acres land belonging to Avinashi Lingeswar temple have been encroached in Avinashi taluk in the district.However, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department officials, who also took part in an inspection carried out by the special team, said since land titles were not in the temple’s name, they could come to a conclusion only after a thorough examination of documents.Based on a Madras high Court order to recover encroached temple lands, a team comprising Coimbatore regional special tahsildar for temple lands and other revenue officials had recently inspected the temple land at Pappangulam, Pudupalayam, Sembagoundanpalayam, Mangalam, Velayudhampalayam, Kandhampalayam, Vallipuram, Thoravalur and Palangarai.“Earlier, more than 7 acres land worth Rs 50 crore was gifted to a few families with conditions that some should arrange for flowers to Avinashi Lingeswar temple and others (should) prepare food for sadhus. But the land seems to have been encroached with some encroachers preparing fake wills to sell the property,” said an official, who didn’t want to be named.Officials have recorded statements of people using the land and collected copies of land documents. “A report has been submitted before the district administration, seeking action against the encroachers,” said A Radhakrishnan of Thiruthondargal Sabha who was part of the team.A senior HR&CE official told TOI that the land in question was not in the title of Avinashi Lingeswar temple and the land seemed to have been gifted to certain families as per ‘kattalai’ (type of will). “So, it is important to ascertain the legal consequences of violating the conditions given in ‘kattalai’. We will go through the documents and take further action.”

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