ওয়াশিংটন বাংলা রেডিও Washington Bangla Radio USA

 
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.