Eight diamonds that form a part of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy idol have gone missing from the prominent Thiruvananthapuram temple, Amicus Curiae Gopal Subramanium reported to the Supreme Court ahead of Monday’s hearing. While the diamonds are currently valued at around Rs 21 lakh, the report says, they are likely worth much more.
Subramanium, appointed by the SC to make the temple’s administration transparent, submitted his report on infrastructure work in the temple, related to security, maintenance and restoration.
According to a report by Krishnadas Rajagopal for The Hindu, Subramanium said in his report that while the diamonds were mentioned by temple officials in August 2015 and March 2016, they were officially reported missing in May 2017 by then Executive Officer KN Satheesh.
Reviewing the security situation of the temple, the report recommended that DIG H Venkatesh be appointed as Chief Security Officer and Vigilance Officer. Subramanium also recommended that an Audit Officer for the temple be nominated by the Comptroller and Auditor General, reported The Times of India.
On restoration work, the report records that the restoration of the Mitranandapuram tank has been completed successfully, while the renovation of the Padmatheertham tank is progressing satisfactorily.
Besides these tanks, the court had also directed the temple administrative committee to restore shrines including the Sreekovil of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple, Sree Ugra Narasimhamurthy, and Thirumbadi Sreekrishna Swamy.
Earlier, in February, the Court had intervened in a clash between the previous Executive Officer Satheesh and the royal family, following which V Ratheesan was named as Executive Officer. Subramanium had written a letter on June 15, asking that he be relieved of his responsibilities as Amicus Curiae.