4 months ago
2
The technological findings successful an interim study submitted connected Monday by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) looking into the alleged misappropriation of golden from the Sabarimala temple ‘disclose suspicious and disturbing circumstances surrounding the transactions nether scrutiny,’ the Kerala High Court said. The findings warrant a deeper, much broad and exhaustive probe of aggregate aspects of temple medication and related transactions spanning implicit 2 decades, the tribunal added.
What initially appeared to beryllium regular administrative actions undertaken successful purported bully religion have, upon person scrutiny, opened a Pandora’s container and revealed prima facie indicators of organised pilferage of ineffable temple valuables, allegedly facilitated with the progressive connivance of individuals entrusted with safeguarding the assets of the deity, said a Division Bench of Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan V. and Justice K.V. Jayakumar.
Although the probe was initially confined to issues relating to the Dwarapalaka idols, a captious introspection brought to airy superior organization lapses, gross mismanagement and imaginable complicity, which whitethorn person enabled the systematic and sustained siphoning of temple assets. This prima facie points to a wider and much entrenched signifier of misconduct, it said.
Transactions of 1998, 2019
The SIT indispensable truthful proceed with utmost diligence and professionalism and behaviour a thorough and impartial probe to unearth each facets of the alleged transgression acts, aft probing the (gold-related) transactions of the years 1998 and 2019, to guarantee continuity and evidentiary coherence, the tribunal said, portion proceeding a suo motu lawsuit successful this regard.
During the (in-camera) hearing, H. Venkatesh, ADGP (Law and Order & Crimes), who is heading the SIT, and different elder officers appeared earlier the tribunal successful idiosyncratic to explicate the advancement of the probe. While galore accused persons were arrested, the imaginable engagement of 5 others is nether progressive scrutiny, they said.
After perusing a technological introspection study prepared by the VSSC, based connected samples of artefacts collected by the SIT from the temple, the tribunal said the absorption of the probe astatine this signifier is to ascertain the precise quantum of golden primitively cladded successful 1998, the quantity of golden utilized for consequent plating successful 2019, and whether the archetypal gold-cladded plates were removed and substituted with freshly plated components. Scientific tests were besides conducted to verify whether copper plates were swapped oregon tampered with.
Reason for doubt
On examining the summary of the chemic analysis, the tribunal recovered that the apprehensions expressed by it earlier stood prima facie reinforced. The lack of nickel and acrylic polymer layers successful the archetypal gold-clad plates, the beingness of nickel and acrylic polymer layers and the lack of mercury successful the subsequently plated copper plates, unneurotic with the comparative thickness of the golden and nickel layers, intelligibly bespeak a methodical process by which the alleged offence appears to person been executed.
These investigation reports disclose the modus operandi of the alleged tampering and substitution and besides supply captious evidentiary pointers to correlate past transactions with consequent activities, the tribunal said and directed the SIT to grounds elaborate statements of experts and analysts of the VSSC to decode and correlate the analytical findings with the grounds already seized. These would shed airy connected the transactions carried retired during 2024 and 2025.
The tribunal besides observed that successful 2017, a caller emblem station (Kodimaram) was installed astatine the Sabarimala Sreekovil, citing that the aged 1 had deteriorated owed to deterioration and teardrop and termite infestation. Later, the Vajivahanam affixed to the aged Kodimaram was handed implicit to Kandararu Rajeevaru, the past Tantri, by the president and a subordinate of the Travancore Devaswom Board. The implicit 10-kg Vajivahanam was recovered from Mr. Rajeevaru’s residence. A prima facie inspection indicates that it was manufactured utilizing Panchaloha, with a important beingness of golden connected the outer surface.
Ashtadikpalaka idols
In presumption of these developments, a elaborate enquiry into the Ashtadikpalaka idols astatine Sabarimala has go inevitable and much witnesses indispensable beryllium examined. The SIT is already probing the circumstances surrounding the dismantling of the earlier Kodimaram and the installing of the caller one, to find imaginable transgression liability.
The tribunal went connected to station the substance for proceeding connected February 9, by which clip the SIT has been directed to taxable a broad probe presumption study earlier it.
