3 months ago
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Stating that it whitethorn not beryllium due to entrust the probe into the alleged misappropriation of golden from the emblem mast of the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating different superior and akin offences astatine the temple, the Kerala High Court connected Monday directed a probe by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) into the matter.
A Division Bench of Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan V. and Justice K.V. Jayakumar passed the interim bid aft the SIT submitted details of a ailment astir the alleged misappropriation of golden and currency successful transportation with the installation of a caller emblem mast astatine the temple successful 2017.
In its preliminary report, the SIT says that the determination to regenerate the emblem mast was taken connected the premise that the aged mast had substantially deteriorated owed to deterioration and tear.
In 2017, 9.16 kg of golden was purchased from the Customs department. The full quantity of golden available, including Customs acquisition and donations, was 9,573 gm, whereas the quantity recorded arsenic utilised for the emblem mast was 9,340 gm.
The lack of idiosyncratic donor receipts rendered it intolerable to verify the nonstop quantity donated. This constituted a superior procedural lapse and a sedate usurpation of Devaswom rules and fiscal accountability norms, the probe squad informed the court.
The SIT submitted that it projected to undertake specialised technological examinations, including X Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy to find aboveground elemental composition, Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry for ultra-trace impurity and elemental profiling, and Optical Emission Spectroscopy to analyse alloy creation and metallurgical uniformity, to comparison betwixt the archetypal golden clad layers and the subsequently ‘gold plated’ surfaces of idols and doorway frames.
The precocious analytical facilities required for these examinations are not disposable astatine the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. None of the forensic labs successful Kerala are equipped to transportation retired the supra tests. The SIT is truthful approaching premier nationalist probe institutions and laboratories, including the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur, and Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, Hyderabad, to undertake these specialised tests, it said.
The tribunal said allegations of this nature, involving the removal and substitution of precious golden cladding from the temple, onslaught astatine the precise sanctity of the temple. Scientific grounds would alteration the tribunal to quantify worldly loss, find the stages and methods of manipulation, correlate timelines of alteration, and hole transgression liability with precision against those responsible.
For this purpose, the tribunal permitted the postulation of typical samples from the Sannidhanam connected February 12, nether controlled and documented conditions.
The SIT successful its study submitted that technological investigation of the Dwarapalaka Idols, which were gold-plated successful 2025, was being carried retired and definite pertinent aspects ought to beryllium ascertained.
In the archetypal phase, clinching documentary materials had been secured establishing that the sanctum sancotum, broadside frames, pillar plates, Dwarapalakas and allied structures were primitively clad with golden by McDowell and Company.
The probe besides covers the alleged removal of the Dwarapalaka plates, broadside plates and doorway frames with the volition of misappropriating the golden cladding affixed thereto, and thereafter golden plating the aforesaid utilizing minimal quantities of golden truthful arsenic to conceal the misappropriation and theft, it said.
The substance was posted for proceeding connected February 19.
