Jammu, Aug. 28: The priests of Mattan in the Kashmir valley have threatened to move the Supreme Court against a probe panel’s charge that they had tampered with the Shivalingam in the Amarnath cave shrine.

Justice K.K. Gupta’s report, handed to the governor yesterday, clears the shrine board of the accusation that it had, in the absence of a naturally formed ice lingam this year, installed a man-made one to attract pilgrims.

It says the tampering — by sprinkling snow on a natural but undersized lingam — was done by Hindu priests based in Mattan, a holy site on the way to the cave shrine, long before the pilgrimage began.

“This is simply distortion of facts. Justice Gupta has acquitted the shrine board and maligned us for reasons best known to him,” said Ashok Siddha, president of the Mattan Purhoit Sabha, which manages the affairs of Kashmiri Hindu priests in the Valley.

The tampering controversy had outraged pilgrims and Hindu religious leaders across the country and prompted governor Lt. Gen (retd) S.K. Sinha, who is also chairman of the shrine board, to appoint Gupta to probe the matter on June 29.

“Justice Gupta has acted on the dictates of the governor and the chief executive officer of the shrine board,” Siddha alleged. “The artificial Shivalingam was brought from Delhi and installed by the shrine board — we had nothing to do with it. There is evidence of that.”

“We will not allow this to go unchallenged. This is a matter of our democratic rights and the image of the community as a whole.”

The Jammu and Kashmir Shiv Sena chief, A. Sharma, has described the Gupta report as a “cruel joke on Hindus”. He has demanded a probe by religious leaders.

Mattan, one of Kashmiri Hindus’ holiest sites, lies on the route to Pahalgam, the original base camp for the Amarnath pilgrimage.