SABARIMALA LORD AYYAPPA TEMPLE124635.JPG
Center-Center-DelhiTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As the Sabarimala gold theft case sends shockwaves across Kerala, the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau’s (VACB) intelligence wing has warned of entrenched corruption and irregularities at the hill shrine, notably in the allotment of the prized ‘padi pooja’ offering.
In a ‘source report’, the intelligence wing calls for a sustained and precise action to root out the malpractices at Sabarimala, carried out with the active connivance of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) staff and their agents.
The report, accessed by TNIE, notes that 18 types of poojas and 39 kinds of offerings are performed at the shrine, with malpractices detected in the manner the TDB staff intervened in several rituals for monetary gain. In the case of padi pooja, the bookings are full till 2041.
The intelligence report flags that most of these slots were cornered by TDB staff and their benamis, and later resold to devotees at steep premiums.
The official rate of padi pooja is Rs 1.37 lakh, and the benamis charged devotees up to 10 times that amount. To conceal the fraud, the names of the actual devotees who paid for the ritual were not recorded in TDB documents. The report further states that many of those who booked padi pooja in the past five years did not perform the ritual, with the slots instead being auctioned to higher bidders.
Similar irregularities were flagged in rituals like ‘thanka anki charthu’ (booking full till 2035), ‘ashtabhishekam’ (booking full till 2035) and ‘sahasrakalasham’ (booking full till 2030). The report notes that the same pattern was found in ‘udayasthamana pooja’, ‘pushpabhishekam’ and ‘kalasabhishekam’.
The report also flags large-scale irregularities in the allotment of rooms at Sannidhanam. Devaswom guards and security personnel have also been named for accepting financial favours from affluent devotees in return for facilitating VIP-style darshan.
Call for probe into temporary appointments
The report further makes damning observations against TDB staff, accusing them of acting as agents for travel operators by arranging premium accommodation, expedited darshan, and pooja slots in exchange for extra cash.
It further calls for a detailed probe into temporary appointments at Sabarimala, pointing out that many individuals have been repeatedly engaged on a temporary basis over the past decade.
Vigilance intel wing flags irregularities
The report by the Vigilance intelligence wing says corruption also tainted tender procedures at the hill shrine, much like the sale of ‘Adiya Shistam Ghee’. The report casts serious doubts on the ‘annadanam’ being offered by the TDB, noting the absence of clear records on the number of beneficiaries.