8 months ago
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The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Opposition has demanded the resignation of Devaswom Minister V.N. Vasavan and Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president P.S. Prasanth, accusing them of giving escaped rein to backstage brokers and profiteers to loot the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple, allegedly allowing them to “spirit out” gold-plated copper foils covering past chromatic carvings and sculptures for manipulation.
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan said erstwhile Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran and erstwhile TDB president A. Padmakumar could not absolve themselves of the work for facilitating the temple-centred “corruption and criminality” during their period.
Mr. Satheesan stated that betwixt 2019 and 2025, the TDB allowed a erstwhile temple helper, Unnikrishnan Potti, to region the invaluable gilded coverings from the temple ostensibly for repair and refurbishment astatine workshops successful Hyderabad and Chennai.
However, Mr. Satheesan stated that the TDB Vigilance had detected a important discrepancy successful value betwixt the archetypal panels and those returned aft the expected restoration successful 2019, nether the supervision of Mr. Surendran and Mr. Padmakumar.
Mr Satheesan stated that Mr. Vasavan and Mr. Prasanth disregarded the cautionary reddish flags raised by the TDB Vigilance successful 2019 and contracted Mr. Potti to transport much gold-plated panels extracurricular the temple for overhaul successful 2025.
“Sufficient grounds has emerged successful the nationalist domain showing Mr. Potti carting astir the spiritual objects to the homes of influential radical for backstage worship. It is besides suspicious that Mr. Potti has nary satisfactory mentation for wherefore helium kept the gilded plaques successful his custody for 4 months and what transpired during the period. Moreover, the TDB besides recovered golden panels donated to Sabarimala from his sister’s location successful Thiruvananthapuram,” helium stated.
Mr. Satheesan said Sabarimala temple artefacts had infinite affectional worth for Ayyappa devotees. They were acrophobic that idiosyncratic mightiness person replicated the archetypal gilded panels successful a antithetic metallic to bargain the archetypal plates for their immense spiritual value. The authorities owed Ayyappa devotees an explanation.
Moreover, helium said, the TDB’s “mystifying classification” of the panels earmarked for repair successful 2019 arsenic axenic copper begged the question of what happened to the archetypal golden coverings installed successful 1999 astatine the behest of businessman Vijay Mallaya.
The workshop, which restored the panels successful 2019 and 2025 nether Mr. Potti’s auspices, had testified that the panels submitted for repair were made of axenic copper with nary golden contiguous successful the metal.
“Mr. Potti has claimed that the TDB has certified the metallic handed implicit to him arsenic made of axenic copper. Only a High Court-monitored enquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) volition bring retired the truth.”
Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) person P.K. Krishnadas said thousands of Ayyappa devotees would laic siege to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s authoritative residence connected Tuesday to property their request for a CBI inquiry.
