TIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Travancore Devaswom Board has finally decided to recognise the role of the “little girl” who helped crack the idol theft case at the Ettumanoor Lord Shiva temple in 1981. TDB president A Padmakumar said the board will build a house for her and give her a temporary job. Torn pages of the book belonging to Ramani, then a school student from Parassala, had helped the police identify Stephen as the thief.
Though the temple officials had then offered a job for Ramani, nothing materialised when she grew up. Recently, there were media reports that the 48-year-old Ramani was living in poverty. Her husband died six months ago and she, along with two children, was living in a dilapidated house. Parassala MLA C K Hareendran visited Ramani and took up the issue with the TDB. Padmakumar said he would visit Ramani’s home soon. “We are exploring the possibility of giving her a temporary job under one of our institutions,” he said.
After the arrest of the accused, Ramani was felicitated at a function held at the Ettumanoor temple. She was given a cash award of Rs 10,000. The probe into the theft case took a fresh twist after the cops recovered the paper used by the accused to pack the crowbar used to break open the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. The notebook paper bore the name and details of Ramani which helped police track the shop that sold crowbar and later the thief Stephen. Stephen, who hails from Dhanuvachapuram in Thiruvananthapuram, had bought the crowbar from a shop at Parassala. After his release from jail, Stephen turned to spirituality.