Man who got Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple troves open is dead

KOCHI: TP Sunderarajan, a former IPS officer whose petition led Supreme Court to order the inventory assessment at the Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple, died at his residence at Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday morning. He was 70.

Sunderarajan was staying close to the temple after his retirement from the Indian Police Service. An officer of the West Bengal cadre, Sunderarajan spent several years with the intelligence bureau, New Delhi.

He was also an advocate at the Supreme Court. A Supreme Court appointed team of observers had found vast treasure consisting of gold coins, gold rings and garlands, gold idols and crowns, silver and rare jewels from five cellars in the temple.

The estimated value of the treasure is close to Rs 1 lakh crore. The Court had instructed the team not to open the last cellar until further orders.