ওয়াশিংটন বাংলা রেডিও Washington Bangla Radio USA

Kerala temple asset petitioner passes away


New Delhi, July 17 (IBNS) Septuagenarian TP Sundararajan, whose petition in the Supreme Court led to the audit of the  treasures found in the vaults of Kerala's  16th century Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, has died.

Media reports said he died of heart attack after suffering from fever on Sunday morning.

Sundararajan was an advocate and had petitioned in court for proper audit and protection of the temple treasures.

The Supreme Court last week reserved its interim order on permitting inventory, videography and providing fool proof security at the Kerala temple, where treasures worth Rs Rs 1.50 lakh crore have been found so far.

A bench of justices R V Raveendran and A K Patnaik said the unearthed treasures may be at ‘risk’ with so much publicity being given by the media.

The Kerala government said all the treasures found at Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple of Lord Vishnu belong to the temple authorities.

The state government said it is spending Rs 1 crore every month on the security of the treasures and has also set up a 24-hour control room for monitoring the situation.

On July 8, the apex court said the treasure vault at Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple should not be opened till further orders are issued.

On July 6, the apex court directed details of treasures recovered at the temple should not be disclosed before the media or the public for security reasons till the inventory by the expert panel was over.

Earlier, the Supreme Court ordered filming and photography of the treasures found in the temple.

The 16th century Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple here shot into fame as the richest in the country after wealth, including jewels and gold, were found there in vaults sealed for over 150 years.

The vaults of the temple of Lord Vishnu were opened at the behest of the Supreme Court.

It is believed that the wealth were those that came from the royal family of Travancore.

The treasure that was found in the temple included gold coins, jewels and precious stone statues of gods and goddesses curved out of solid gold and decked with diamonds, rubies, emeralds and other expensive stones, reports said.