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Thiruvananthapuram, October 22 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party’s Kerala unit president Rajiv Chandrashekhar has written a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah demanding an investigation by central agencies into the alleged gold scam related to Sabarimala.
This fresh demand comes hours after a high-level delegation of the state BJP led by him met President Draupadi Murmu at the Kerala Raj Bhavan late on Tuesday night and apprised him of the gold scam at the Sabarimala temple.
These demands come at a time when the Kerala High Court has appointed an SIT to investigate the gold scam.
In his letter to HM Shah, Chandrashekhar urged that a thorough investigation be conducted into the financial transactions related to the temple over the last three decades.
He said the facts that have emerged so far are “extremely shocking” and only a robust and transparent investigation can restore the faith of devotees.
Meanwhile, the Kerala High Court has directed that the role and possible conspiracy of Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) officials should be thoroughly investigated.
The case revolves around gold plating from the Dvarapalaka plates, which were handed over to the now arrested ‘sponsor’ Unnikrishnan Potti in 2019, and are now suspected of being misused.
The court noted several irregularities, including inconsistencies in records, including the gold sheets being described as copper, lack of weight verification upon return and absence of proper documentation in the temple registry. Investigators suspect that the returned gold may not be the same as the gold taken from the sanctum sanctorum.
In 2024, the gold plating was found to be tarnished despite a 40-year warranty, prompting the board to reassign the work to the same artisan, a move the court said may have been intended to cover up the original lapse.
The court also questioned the sudden reversal of the Devaswom Commissioner’s earlier stand on using traditional methods for gold plating.
Keeping in mind the seriousness of the case, the High Court directed the SIT to seize and preserve the TDB Minutes Book and investigate the involvement of officials at all levels.
–IANS
SG/DPB