THE current chairman of the Sri Maha Mariamman temple committee should step down as he has not been involved in the running of the place for the past 17 years, said the task force set up to protect the temple from relocation.

A member of the task force, Elangovan Annamalai, today hit out at the temple chairman K. Chellapa, saying he had no business holding on to the president’s post.

“Chellapa is officially the chairman, but since 2001, he had not set foot into the temple,” Elangovan told The Malaysian Insight.

“I’m very surprised at how he is sending his annual general reports and audited accounts.”

Elangovan also accused Chellapa of selling out to the developer, One City Development Sdn Bhd, for accepting the compensation to relocate the temple from his present site in Subang Jaya to Putra Heights, located some 2.7km away.

In a consent judgment issued by the court, the developer would relocate the temple to a new site and pay compensation.

The temple was to have relocated last week but the task force refused to budge as they had filed an injunction to stop the relocation.

This led to a group of about 50 masked men attacking the temple on Monday, resulting in two days of riots. Scores of people were injured while more than 20 vehicles were torched.

“Chellapa should resign and return the money he took from the developer,” said Elangovan.

“The devotees feel cheated as whatever agreement Chellapa reached with the developer was never discussed with them.

“He took the money without the consent of the devotees who are the biggest stakeholders of the temple.

“He should now step down and let others run the management (of the temple) with dignity.” – December 1, 2018.