Amid a scandal over the alleged theft of gold from the Sabarimala temple, the Kerala High Court on Tuesday called on Vigilance authorities to also probe the alleged misappropriation of funds by employees of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), the statutory body that administers the temple, in connection with the sale of “Adiya Sishtam Ghee” — a sacred offering sold to devotees.
A Bench of Justices Raja Vijayaraghavan and K V Jayakumar directed the state Vigilance Director to form a team and register a crime under the Prevention of Corruption Act “to ascertain the full extent of the misappropriation of funds by TDB employees in relation to the sale of ‘Adiya Sishtam Ghee’”.
Proceeds from the sale of the offering form a part of the TDB’s revenue. The ghee is sold at Rs 100 per 100-ml packet. Lakhs of such packets are prepared and sold over the counters at Sabarimala.
The alleged misappropriation detected by the Temple Vigilance Officer pertains to a period of less than two months, starting from November 17 last year. It was found that TDB employees were allegedly not remitting the proceeds from the sale of the ghee.
The court said, “If the siphoning of amounts for a period just under two months, confined only to the sale of ‘adiya sishtam ghee’, is to the tune of approximately Rs 35 lakh, it is difficult to even imagine the magnitude of misappropriation that may have occurred over a longer period and across other revenue streams. The magnitude of the short remittance, within a limited window of time, is alarming and cannot be brushed aside as an accounting lapse.”
The court observed that it was inconceivable that the siphoning of such magnitude could have been carried out without the knowledge, acquiescence, or wilful blindness of persons occupying positions at the higher rungs of the administrative hierarchy.
Officers at the highest level are entrusted with a fiduciary duty to ensure that adequate safeguards, checks, and control mechanisms are put in place so that the revenue of the temple is properly accounted for, protected, and not siphoned off, the court observed, adding that a failure to institute even basic safeguards amounts to a grave dereliction of duty.
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The court said details of the probe should not be revealed to the press and that the team would be answerable only to the court.
