Sree Padmanabhaswamy TempleAs much as 266 kg gold is missing from the famed Sree
Padmanabhaswamy temple, said former chief government auditor Vinod Rai in
his audit report that he submitted to the apex court on Friday.
According to media reports,of the 893 kg gold that was given out for various works, only
627 kg has been returned to the temple.
Rai was asked by the Supreme Court last year to conduct an
audit of the temple's books and accounts.
A division bench of Justice R.M. Lodha and Justice A.K.
Patnaik last April in its interim order had asked Rai to undertake the audit of the temple accounts and properties
for the past quarter of a century. This directive came on the recommendations of amicus curiae
Gopal Subramaniam, who had sought overhauling of the functioning of the temple.
Apart from asking Rai to audit the accounts of the temple,
the apex court also directed the formation of a new five-member committee
comprising of a judge from the capital city, the temple tantri, chief nambi of
the Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple and two more members, of which one will be
appointed in consultation with the state government and one would be the choice
of the judge.
It was in July 2011 that an apex court committee stumbled
upon six vaults in the temple and with just vault B left to be opened, the
treasure that has been found in the other five vaults have been estimated to be
valued more than Rs.100,000 crore.
Since then, armed security guards besides state of the art
security equipment has been deployed for the safe upkeep of this treasure.
Reacting to the new developments, Communist Party of
India-Marxist legislator V.Sivankutty said that a few years back all hell broke
loose when V.S.Achuthanandan said that things are not going the way it
should go in the temple as far as the priceless treasures upkeep are concerned
and blamed the Travancore royal family.
"Look, what Rai has come out with in his report. There are
some views from some quarters that the issues of this temple should be hushed
up. Now with this report, responsibilities should be fixed and those people who
have caused this should be brought to light," he said.
The erstwhile Travancore Royal Family with its headquarters
in the capital city is however yet to react on Rai's report.
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