Audit at Guruvayur temple points to ‘missing’ assets amid Sabarimala gold theft row

Thiruvananthapuram: An audit at famous Guruvayur temple released now has various assets including gold and ivory marked as 'missing', according to NDTV.

The report of the 2019 audit at the temple comes amid raging allegations of gold theft at Sabarimala temple.

The audit pointed to a loss of Rs 79 lakh linked to deposits in a gold scheme run by the State Bank of India.

It is reportedly found that coral wood tree seeds ( manchadi) offered by devotees are missing and saffron flowers were not in the records.

Also, 2,000 kg of traditional cookware, or Uruli, worth Rs 15 lakh, donated by a resident of Palakkad, was not found in the calculations.

Additionally, over 530 kg of ivory from the Punnathur elephant fort is missing.

The Guruvayur Devaswom, which manages and governs 12 temples, said that discrepancies were resolved and a detailed affidavit regarding it was submitted to the Kerala High Court.

The BJP has come down heavily on the alleged discrepancies with the party’s Pradeep Bhandari saying ‘After Sabarimala, now Guruvayur Temple, Audit reveals gold missing from temple treasury’.

Responding to the gold theft at Sabarmala, Kerala High Court last week said it could not be termed as ‘isolated’ pointing to a well-orchestrated conspiracy.

The controversy erupted after it came out that gold plating of the Dwarapalaka idols and side frames of the Sreekovil were removed with the probe revealing the idols were handed over to sponsor Unnikrishnan Potti in 2019.

It is reported that officials allowed the idols to be taken out of the shrine after wrongly describing them as ‘copper plates’ and did not weigh them when they were returned.

Also, it is reported citing the Special Investigation Team's report that Potti was allowed to retain more than 400 grams of gold extracted from the side frames.