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Palakkad, Oct 22 (IANS) The political storm over the Sabarimala gold scam intensified on Wednesday, with Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Satheesan demanding the resignation of current Devaswom minister VN Vasavan and dismissal of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB).
Satheesan said that based on the latest observations of the Kerala High Court, which have “underscored the seriousness” of the allegations, VN Vasavan should step down and the TDB should be dismissed.
Elaborating on the scam, Satheesan said the fraud dates back to 2019, when the original gold-plated Dvarapalaka plates were allegedly replaced with fake copper sheets and the originals were sold to private parties.
Satheesan said, “The then TDB leadership, along with ‘sponsor’ Unnikrishnan Potti (currently arrested) was already under investigation. The present board acted with full knowledge of this first scam when it again assigned the same Potti the job in 2025.”
He also highlighted the contradictions in the actions of the Devaswom Commissioner.
“On July 30, the commissioner had reportedly objected to handing over the gold plating work to outsiders and warned against trusting a private agency. However, exactly a week later, the situation was reversed and reportedly after the intervention of the current TDB president, Poti was given the job again,” said LOP Satheesan.
The high court, in its recent interim observations, said the board violated the Devaswom manual and earlier court orders while allowing the plates to be carried out.
The court also pointed out that if it had not intervened, the Dwarpalaka plates taken out in 2025 could also have been sold.
Satheesan said, “This is not negligence, this is organized looting of the temple gold. The minister should immediately resign and the entire board should be thrown out.”
He further alleged that the Chairman of the Devaswom Board “played a direct role” in rejecting the Commissioner’s objections.
“If officials are accused, why is the President still in office?”. The leader asked.
Incidentally, the current TDB president PS Prashant is a CPI-M leader.
Earlier, he was a top district leader in the Congress party and had unsuccessfully contested the 2021 assembly elections from his home constituency in the capital district.
Soon after Prashant lost the election, he left the Congress party and joined the CPI-M. Soon after, he was made the president of TDB.
–IANS
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