New Delhi: The Supreme Court, on Monday, came down hard on K P Shankar Das, former Devaswom Board member of the Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple and refused to delete adverse comments made against him by the Kerala High Court.
This is with regards to the gold plated theft and manipulation case at the temple.
“You have not even spared God,” the SC bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma said while dismissing Das’ plea.
The case revolves around the alleged misappropriation and theft of gold items from the Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple in Kerala. A Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted by the Kerala High Court, is probing the disappearance of gold-plated copper items and other temple artefacts that were handed over for electroplating and repair, but later returned with significantly less gold than before.
Investigators suspect that gold was siphoned off and sold, with the prime accused, Unnikrishnan Potty, allegedly diverting the temple’s gold for private gain, as reported by India Today.
The SC bench remarked that at least the temple and the deity should have been left untouched and observed that Das, as a board member, was also responsible for the alleged gold loot at the Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple.
Despite the seriousness of the offence, the High Court had extended certain reliefs to Das considering his health and advanced age, and not on the merits of the case, the Supreme Court noted.
The High Court had earlier observed that Das and K Vijayakumar could not escape criminal conspiracy charges related to the alleged theft and manipulation of gold plates.
Das had approached the apex court seeking deletion of five paragraphs from the High Court order, which contained critical observations against him. This plea was rejected on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Kerala High Court’s Devaswom Bench has granted the SIT additional time to complete the probe into the Sabarimala gold theft case. The court extended the deadline by six weeks after the SIT informed it about the interim progress of the investigation. The SIT is scheduled to submit an interim investigation report on January 19.
