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Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 9 (IANS) Leader of Opposition in Kerala VD Satheesan on Thursday said he will legally respond to the lawyer’s notice served by former Devaswom minister and CPI-M MLA Kadakampally Surendran over his remarks on the alleged sale of the Ayyappa temple gatekeeper idol.
Surendran has asked Satheesan to publicly apologize for his remarks; If not, he will have to face a defamation suit of Rs 2 crore.
Satheesan reiterated that his statements were based on observations recorded by the Kerala High Court.
Satheesan said, “It was the High Court that concluded that the original Dvarapalaka idol had been sold.”
The opposition leader pointed out that even the current Devaswom Minister and Chairman of the Devaswom Board had publicly said that irregularities took place in 2019.
Satheesan said, “This was when Kadakampally was the minister. He had full responsibility for the matter.”
Questioning why no action was taken against Unnikrishnan Potti, Satheesan said, “If Potti alone is responsible, why was a case not registered against him? If that happened, Kadakampally and others would also be implicated. That is why the case was suppressed.”
Citing the High Court judgment, Satheesan claimed that the government and the Devaswom board knew about the loss from 2022, but decided to keep it hidden.
“The court order makes everything clear. It was only after the matter came before the court that the authorities were forced to take action. Had the court not intervened, the golden idol of Ayyappa could also have been lost,” he said.
Satheesan accused the government and the Devaswom board of lacking any credible defence.
“This is not isolated theft, this is an organized cover-up,” he said, adding that the opposition would continue to raise the issue both legally and politically.
For the last four days, the assembly witnessed angry protests by the opposition and every day there was a war of words between the ruling party and the opposition and on many occasions things went out of control.
On Thursday, Speaker AN Shamseer had suspended three Congress MLAs on charges of indiscipline, and even though the last meeting of this assembly’s last session was to be held on Friday, the Speaker adjourned the House sine die on Thursday following sustained protests.
–IANS
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