7 months ago
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The Kerala Police’s peculiar probe squad (SIT) probing the alleged misappropriation and imaginable replication of gold-plated spiritual artefacts from Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple successful 2019 has reportedly expanded its probe to Hyderabad successful Telangana.
Officials privy to the probe accidental the SIT appears to person preliminary grounds that the gold-inlaid copper overlays covering the chromatic carvings and the sculptures of the iconic temple were perchance kept astatine the location of a affluent Ayyappa devotee successful Hyderabad.
The SIT reportedly suspects that the gilded artefacts earmarked for restoration to their archetypal sheen had taken a protracted detour to the gold-plating concern portion successful Chennai.
The TDB had “questionably” contracted a backstage person, Unnikrishnan Potty, presently the cardinal absorption of the SIT probe and a erstwhile temple assistant, successful 2019 to reconstruct the fraying gold-plated copper coverings.
According to TDB’s interior Vigilance study submitted to the High Court, Mr. Potty’s lawman had taken custody of the artefacts ostensibly to deposit them astatine the Chennai factory.
However, the objects reached the installation aft an “inexplicable hiatus” of 39 days, raising suspicion astir imaginable duplication of the gold-plated copper casts and the merchantability of the archetypal artefacts to affluent collectors for backstage worship.
Officials said the SIT is tracing the temple artefacts’ itinerary to the Chennai factory. They said investigators person stumbled connected societal media evidence, including video footage and photographs of the objects astatine the houses of well-heeled devotees successful Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai for backstage worship.
Meanwhile, investigators are besides scouring the Sabarimala temple records to find the suspected “criminal intent” down a acceptable of TDB administrators “misleadingly categorising” the gold-plated coverings arsenic made of axenic copper portion entrusting them to Mr. Potty’s adjutant for restoration.
Moreover, the SIT is investigating Mr. Potty’s past, including his tenure arsenic a clergyman astatine the Jalahalli Ayyappa Temple successful Bengaluru, and examining the reasons for his gaining immense traction wrong the Sabarimala Temple orthodoxy and the TDB.
TDB meeting
Meanwhile, a high-level gathering is connected astatine the TDB office successful Thiruvananthapuram. TDB president P.S. Prasanth said the committee would petition the High Court to nonstop the SIT to probe temple affairs since 1998, erstwhile a erstwhile industrialist had donated important amounts of golden and copper to screen the Ayyappa temple, including its roof, with gilded plates.
He said the TDB besides considered enactment against 9 officials indicted by the SIT successful the case. “Seven of those named successful the FIR are retired. Any enactment against them volition beryllium contingent connected whether the tribunal finds them guilty. The TDB has suspended 1 of the serving officials. Action is nether mode against the other,” helium added.
Mr. Prasanth besides said the TDB would petition the High Court for a probe into transactions astatine the Sabarimala temple since 1999, covering those during the tenures of United Democratic Front (UDF)-appointed TDB presidents and Devaswom Commissioners.
