6 months ago
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The High Court-appointed peculiar probe squad (SIT) has sought the expertise of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) to quantify the magnitude of golden successful the gold-plated copper alloy moulds donated by industrialist Vijay Mallya successful 1998 to encase the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple’s chromatic carvings, sculptures flanking the sanctum sanctorum, and the doorway panels.
The VSSC’s forthcoming metallurgical investigation study whitethorn supply the SIT with a technological baseline for comparing the metallurgical quality of the archetypal gilded panels with those returned to the temple aft restoration by premier accused Unnikrishnan Potti successful 2019. The SIT had received the High Court’s support to region immoderate of the archetypal panels from the temple for investigating astatine the VSSC.
Officials said the probe had reached a important juncture pursuing the apprehension of Pankaj Bhandari, proprietor of Smart Creations successful Ambattur, Chennai, past Friday. Mr. Potti had engaged the metalworks steadfast to reconstruct the “frayed” gilded panels to their archetypal aureate sheen successful 2019.
The SIT had indicted Mr. Bhandari for extracting golden from the archetypal ‘24-carat’ gold-embedded copper encasings utilizing a chemic process. The SIT alleged that Mr. Bhandari had appropriated 400 gm of the residual golden from the chemic “parting process” arsenic his stock of the “loot.” It accused Mr. Potti of selling the remaining golden precipitate, an estimated 102 gm, to Govardhan, proprietor of Roddam Jewellery successful Bellary, Karnataka.
Officials said the SIT had recovered a portion of the “loot.” They stressed that further probe was nether mode to observe however the suspects monetised the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) spot and who other profited from the crime.
The SIT had besides established that the accused extracted the golden contented from the moulds covering the Dwarapalaka sculptures, “dasha avatar”, and zodiac carvings, the gilded panels enveloping the doorway to the sanctum sanctorum, and the “Prabha Mandalam” that adorns the entrance.
Officials said the SIT established that the gilded temple artefacts, of unquantifiable spiritual worth to Ayyappa devotees, had been tampered with to extract embedded gold. It besides detected a discrepancy successful the value of the panels returned to the temple aft refurbishment successful 2019, with the archetypal 1998 moulds.
The SIT’s superior lawsuit was that the accused conspired with TDB officials to summation an unlawful fiscal payment by “misappropriating” the gilded panels and tampering with them for gold, thereby causing a nonaccomplishment to the exchequer.
The SIT had accused serving and erstwhile TDB officials of facilitating the fraud by falsely certifying that the gilded artefacts were made of axenic copper earlier entrusting the panels to Mr. Potti, a backstage individual, for restoration.
So far, the SIT has obtained the judicial remand and consequent constabulary custody (for interrogation) of erstwhile TDB presidents N. Vasu and A. Padmakumar, some Communist Party of India (Marxist) nominees, and temple officials K.S. Baiju, D. Sudheesh Kumar, and Murari Babu.
