"All members, president of Devaswom board should resign": Senior BJP leader Kummanam Rajasekharan amid Sabarimala gold theft row

Thrissur (Kerala) [India], October 4 (ANI): Former Kerala Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Kummanam Rajasekharan on Saturday demanded the resignation of all members of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) and its president PS Prasanth.
Alleging that the golden cover from the Dwarapalaka idols at Sabarimala temple was "taken purposefully", Rajasekharan, former Mizoram Governor, told ANI sought an investigation into the case by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
"The Travancore Devaswom has violated all the instructions and judgments of the High Court of Kerala. They have very purposefully taken that golden cover from the Dwarapalaka of Sabarimala. We demand that all the members and the president of the Devaswom board should resign. The case should be handed over to the CBI, and the CBI should take up this case, book the culprit, and put them before the law," Rajasekharan said.
This comes a day after the opposition-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala also sought a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in the gold plating of the Sabarimala temple. UDF convener Adoor Prakash said that the Ayyappa devotees have the right to know about the culprits.
Pathanamthitta Youth Congress district president Vijay Induchoodan has written to the police, demanding a case be registered against Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in connection with the alleged Sabarimala gold-plated pedestal theft.
Induchoodan wrote to the Director General of Police (DGP) and other police officials, urging them to register a case against Kerala Devaswom Minister VN Vasavan, who is also the Minister for Cooperation and Ports, along with Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president P S Prasanth, and other officials.
"A case should be registered against the Devaswom President, Devaswom officials, Devaswom Minister, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, and Unnikrishnan Potty, and an investigation should be conducted. I also request that the concerns of the devotees regarding this issue be resolved. I believe that the police system here will understand that it is the responsibility of the devotees to resolve their concerns," Induchoodan wrote in his letter.
The controversy surrounds the gold-plated Dwarapalaka idols and pedestals at the Lord Ayyappa temple.
Induchoodan further mentioned Unnikrishnan Potty, who worked in the Sabarimala temple earlier, claiming that he may have received help from the Devaswom Board to allegedly smuggle valuable items from the temple.
"It is believed that Unnikrishnan Potty may have received help from the Devaswom Board to smuggle such valuable items from there. Therefore, a case should be registered against the Devaswom Board officials, including the Devaswom Board President, and action should be taken. If the Devaswom Board President and the Devaswom Board officials say so many lies, they must have received instructions from the Minister's Office and the Chief Minister's Office," he added.
Vigilance wing of the TDB is currently investigating the alleged theft of two copper-gold-leaf-covered metal plaques donated to the Sabarimala temple in 2019. There are also allegations surrounding the more than 30 kg of gold donated to the temple by industrialist Vijay Mallya in 1998. The TDB Vigilance has reported that key records related to Mallya's donations had gone missing from the Sabarimala Executive Office.
The Dwarapalaka idols at the Sabarimala temple had gold-plated plates, originally installed in 1999, with the intention of keeping them there for the next 40 years. However, defects were seen in the plates after just a few years. In 2019, the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) removed the plates for repairing.
Historical records indicate that the 1998 gold cladding, completed in 1999, was undertaken under the leadership of Chennai-based jeweller Nagarajan of JNR Jewellery, with the expertise of 53 Tamil Nadu artisans. The process involved layering gold beaten into thin foils and bonding them onto copper plates with mercury.
In 2019, during repairs, Devaswom records listed the removed panels as copper sheets. When the replated panels were returned, records showed a reduction of 4.41 kg. Unnikrishnan Potty testified that the sheets given to him were copper-based with residual gold, which had been later replated at a Chennai firm. (ANI)