Recovery of the sacred ornaments of Guruvayurappan from the holy well at Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple after about three decades has reopened the case in which former Chief Minister, the late K Karunakaran, was accused of mishandling the issue.
The sacred jewels of the deity were found missing on 1 April, 1985, when the late Karunakaran was the Chief Minister of the state.
The issue then kicked up a controversy in the state with the Opposition Left targeting the Chief Minister and saying the sacred jewels would not be disappeared from the temple without the knowledge of the Chief Minister as he used to visit the temple on every first day of the local almanac.
Though the local police had registered a case in connection with the incident, the probe did not make any headway and the case was subsequently handed over to the Crime Branch.
The Crime Branch team, that took over the case from the local police, subjected the Melshanti of the temple, Kakkad Damodharan Namboothiri, and his two children to lie-detecting tests in New Delhi in 1986.
However, the probe did not yield any results and they finally closed the case with the permission of the court in 1996, giving a clean chit to the chief priest and his two children, said Guruvayur Devaswom chairman T V Chandramohan.
The accusation against Karunakaran also proved costly for him as he had to face drubbing in the Assembly elections held in 1987, in which the Left used the incident as a poll plank against him.
The incident also cast a shadow over the career prospects of Damodharan Namboothiri and his family during that time. During the time of investigation, Damodharan Nambooithiri died of age-related ailments in 1989.
Later when the court acquitted them in 1996 for lack of evidence, his son Kakkad Devadas Namboothiri approached the High Court seeking his reinstatement into service.
He was later selected as the chief priest of the temple in 1998 and 2002.
The Devaswom administration also penalised Damodharan Namboothiri by asking him to pay a fine of `50,000 in April, 1985.
Though the family was acquitted, the amount penalised was not reimbursed by the Devaswom, he said.
A Devaprashanam conducted in the temple by the authorities soon after the theft had also pointed out that the scared ornament was in holy well. But nobody had taken any initiative to look into the well that time.
“Once the vetting of the sacred jewel is completed by the Devaswom, we will inform the matter to the police and they can decide whether to start a reinvestigation into the case,” Chandramohan said.
R Jayachandran, Assistant Police Commissioner, Guruvayur, said the local police have nothing to do with the retrieval of scared ornament as the case was handled by the Crime Branch wing of the state police. “But the Crime Branch can reopen the case on the very next day either on suo motu or based on a complaint of the Devaswom, but with the permission of court in the light of the recovery of the lost Thiruvabharanam,” he said.
Meanwhile, Congress leader K Muraleedharan on Friday said those who insulted his father in connection with the theft of the sacred ornaments of the temple, should apologise now.