THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state police have decided to seek legal opinion before taking a call on its course of action in the missing of gold-plated panels from Sabarimala dwarapalaka idols. So far, the police have received three complaints on the matter, said a senior police officer.
An officer told TNIE that legal advise needs to be obtained since “there were some confusion in the whole episode.” The complaints received were of varying nature and raised various demands. One of the complainant’s demand is to probe the incidents that took place in Sabarimala from 1990s. Hence, we decided to seek legal opinion on the complaints and take further action based on it,” the officer added.
The officer did not accept or deny the scope of the state crime branch taking over the probe once a case is registered, but sources said being a specialised agency, the CB might be roped in owing to the gravity of the issue. Currently, the devaswom vigilance is conducting the probe and expected to file its report before the High Court soon. The state government will also inform the court about its readiness to conduct the probe by the local police or the Crime Branch.
As per the Travancore Devaswom Board’s documents, the dwarapalaka idols were among the properties that were layered with gold in 1999. Records showed that 30.3kg of gold was used for the gold covering the sanctum, including the dwarapalaka idols, roof, steps and certain portions of the wall in 1999. The gold plating was sponsored by businessman Vijay Mallya.
However, when the plates covering the idols were sent for maintenance to Chennai in 2019, the entries in the register did not mention any gold. They state that 14 copper panels were sent for repair.
The maintenance was sponsored by priest-turned-businessman Unnikrishnan Potti, the central figure in the current controversy. The Chennai-based company, which did the repair work, said recently that it received pure copper panels for gold plating.
Devaswom vigilance to file report soon
Currently, the devaswom vigilance is conducting the probe and expected to file its report before the High Court soon. The state government will also inform the court about its readiness to conduct the probe by the local police or the Crime Branch.
