Kerala HC directs TDB Vigilance officer to submit report on alleged gold theft from ‘Ezharaponnana’
The Kerala High Court has ordered the Chief Vigilance and Security Officer of the Travancore Devaswom Board to inspect the temple registers as well as
The Kerala High Court has ordered the Chief Vigilance and Security Officer of the Travancore Devaswom Board to inspect the temple registers as well as the ‘Ezharapponnana’ of Ettumanur Mahadeva Temple and to submit a report with his opinion and findings on allegations pertaining to the gold plates on the elephant statuettes. The officer was also directed to use the services of a goldsmith so that the weight, quality, and originality of the gold are duly examined.
The Division Bench of Justices Raja Vijayaraghavan and K.V. Jayakumar was considering the suo motu case based on a request by a devotee for an inquiry into the suspected misappropriation of gold on the ‘Ezharapponnana’ and the alleged illegal occupation of temple properties. Devotee’s allegation The ‘ezhara’ (seven and a half) ‘ponnana’ (golden elephants) consists of eight statuettes of elephants — seven of them 2 feet high and the eighth one, half the height.
These are brought out once a year in a procession for the devotees to pay obeisance. The complaint further alleged that during the repair works carried out on the gold plates covering the ‘Ezharaponnana,’ the original plates were removed and replaced with
copper or other low-value metals. The Administrative Officer and the Assistant Devaswom Commissioner had filed reports stating that they had inspected and cross-checked all the temple registers and concluded that no records indicated any maintenance work or any misappropriation on the ‘Ezharaponnana’.
The BriefWire