Guruvayur Temple's Controversial Thar reauctioned for ₹43 Lakh

Thrissur: A devotee based in Malapuram won the controversial Mahindra Thar at an auction held at the Sree Krishna temple in Guruvayur on Monday.

The red limited edition SUV was last year auctioned to a Bahrain based Malayalee Amal Mohammed Ali at ₹ 15.10 lakh with a friend, Subash Panicker, representing him at the auction.

This time round, 15 bidders competed for the SUV, which eventually fetched nearly three-times as much the value it got last time, winning at ₹ 43 lakh.

Dubai-based businessman Vignesh Vijayakumar wanted his agent to go ahead winning it at any cost, his father told a TV channel.

Mr Vijayakumar wanted to win the SUV for his parents, his father said. "Very happy that we were able to buy the vehicle," he said.

The winner will have to pay GST also for the vehicle before it can be taken home.

The vehicle was re-auctioned after Hindu Seva Sangam approached the High Court objecting to handing over the vehicle to Ali saying that the auction did not receive publicity, thus limiting it to just one bidder.

The Kerala High Court suggested holding a public hearing to resolve it. Subsequently, in the public hearing it was decided to re-auction the vehicle.

With inputs from PTI