There is one man in Malappuram district living with the wounds of being crucified for the missing of sacred ornaments from Guruvayur temple. Today, Ponnani Eramangalam village native P T Mohanakrishnan is the most relieved person to know that one of the missing ornaments was recovered from the well in the temple. Mohanakrishnan, the then Guruvayur Devaswom chairman, and K Karunakaran were crucified by the then Opposition, saying that they had a role in the loss of ornaments.
The Opposition started an all-out attack on Mohanakrishnan and K Karunakaran. The personal attack was at its peek at the time of Assembly elections in 1987, two years after the missing of ornaments.
“The CPM framed me as the sacred-jewellery robber and asked the devotees not to vote for me. I was competing from the Ponnani Assembly constituency. They had used the same tactics against K Karunakaran also. Though the LDF won the elections that time, Karunakaran and myself won from our constituencies overcoming all the allegations,” Mohanakrishnan said.
But Mohanakrishnan is lucky as he lived to see the truth come out. But K Karunakaran and the then chief priest, Kakkad Damotharan Namboothiri, are not alive today. “The devaswom committee fined `50,000 from the chief priest in connection with the incident. He died with the pain of being projected as the main accused in the incident. K Karunakaran also died with the pain. CPM politically exploited the issue. Deshabhimani had even written an editorial blaming us,” Mohanakrishnan added.
Mohanakrishnan said that he was eager to go to Guruvayur temple after knowing about the recovery of the ornament to offer his gratitude to Guruvayurappan. He said that perhaps one of the assistants of the chief priest might have put it in the well to trap the priest.