THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau (VACB), which is conducting a preliminary inquiry into the alleged misappropriation of gold and funds during the installation of the Sabarimala flag mast, on Sunday recorded the statement of Union Minister Suresh Gopi.
The actor-turned-politician was one among 27 individuals, who had donated gold and cash for reinstalling a flag mast at the shrine in 2017. So far Vigilance has recorded statements of 20 people. The statement of actor Mohan Lal, who had also donated gold, will be recorded shortly.
The Vigilance had earlier recorded the statements of filmmakers Shaji Kailas and Renji Panicker and producer Suresh Kumar, who had contributed gold towards construction of the flag mast.
The total quantity of gold available, including customs purchase and donations, was 9,573.010 g, whereas the quantity recorded as utilised for the flag mast was 9,340.2 g.
Of the 27 donors, about a dozen are from the film industry, while the rest are industrialists and businessmen.
Once all their statements are recorded, the cops will verify whether the allegations of misappropriation are true. If they are, an FIR will be registered.
A special vigilance team headed by a DySP was formed to probe the allegations following a High Court directive issued after the Travancore Devaswom Board’s chief vigilance officer flagged discrepancies in the utilisation of gold received for the mast’s reinstallation.
The report said the allegations were grave in nature and warranted a detailed probe.
No mention of donor names in temple docusVACB’s assessment is that 27 people donated gold for the flag mast that was reinstalled in 2017.
However, since the documents from the temple did not mention the donors’ names, the officers were forced to directly seek details of donation from the individuals in order to ascertain the quantity of gold that was received by the board as donations.