In an incident of strained relations with the executive officer of the famed Bhadrachalam temple, the temple Archakas today approached the state human rights commission seeking action against the EO Mr Chandrasekhar Azad for his reported errant behaviour towards them.

The Archakas in their petition said that the EO has slapped the chief priest of the temple and abused him for no fault of his and sought stringent punishment against him. Acting on the petition, the HRC directed the Endowments department to submit a detailed report on the happenings in the temple by Nov 14.

It all began nearly two weeks ago when a devotee dropped a hundred rupee note in the Harathi given by the chief priest. The chief priest collected the amount as the Harathi offerings would go to the Pujaris.

However, the EO, having viewed this through CC cameras, blamed the chief priest saying he sought a bribe from the devotee for a special puja. He later slapped him and forced him to drop his gold ring into the Hundi, according to some media reports.

When the Archakas questioned his behaviour, the EO offered apologies but they felt they were humiliated and decided to complain to the human rights commission.