4 months ago
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The High Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) has charged Sabarimala elder Tantri (chief priest) Kandararu Rajeevaru with transgression complicity and conspiracy successful the “dishonest misappropriation” of the temple’s gold-plated spiritual artefacts successful 2019.
In the remand study filed precocious Friday, the SIT besides indicted Mr. Rajeevaru for misappropriation of temple property, illicit enrichment, and maltreatment of powerfulness for summation nether assorted provisions of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, 1988. Earlier, the SIT had recieved ineligible sentiment that it could deem Mr. Rajeevaru, who draws an honorarium from the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), arsenic a nationalist servant.
The SIT alleged that Mr. Rajeevaru had violated the temple manual by allowing the premier accused, Unnikrishnan Potti, who was brought to the temple arsenic a helper successful 2007, to dismantle the gilded moulds covering the temple’s chromatic carvings, doorway and sculptures for transport to a metallic works factory, Smart Creations, astatine Ambathur successful Chennai, purportedly for restoration.
Moreover, the SIT accused Mr. Rajeevaru of “silently acquiescing to the communal intention” of the accused to bargain invaluable temple spot for illicit fiscal gain. It besides told the tribunal that Mr. Rajeevaru had not followed the prescribed rituals governing the granting oregon withholding of consent for the repair and transport of the temple’s spiritual artefacts.
Reduced weight
The suspected transgression came to airy successful October past twelvemonth aft a High Court-ordered interior enquiry by the TDB Vigilance recovered that the gold-plated copper panels returned by Mr. Potti to the temple successful 2019 weighed importantly little and that the alloy’s golden contented had declined drastically.
Last month, the SIT arrested the mill proprietor connected charges of separating the golden from the alloy utilizing a chemic process, allegedly astatine Mr. Potti’s behest. The SIT besides accused the mill proprietor of unlawfully appropriating a portion of the golden residue arsenic his stock of the loot, portion leaving the remainder to Mr. Potti for backstage sale. The SIT besides arrested a jeweller from Bellary, Karnataka, for buying the “stolen gold” from Mr. Potti.
Forging property
Notably, the SIT besides booked Mr. Rajeevaru for forging invaluable property, indicating that it was investigating whether the accused had replicated the artefacts successful a cheaper alloy and sold the originals, donated by industrialist Vijay Mallya successful 1998, to affluent collectors, a probability flagged by the High Court.
The SIT besides elaborate Mr. Rajeevaru’s decades-long relation with Mr. Potti and the backstage pujas helium had conducted connected the premises of affluent devotees astatine the latter’s behest and perchance for sizeable backhanders. It besides noted that Mr. Potti had dismantled the gilded moulds successful the beingness of Mr. Rajeevaru.
