Padmanabha Swami temple assessment team to submit interim report to SC

KOCHI: The seven-member panel constituted for the inventory assessment of the wealth of Sree Padmanabha Swami Temple at Thiruvananthapuram will submit an interim report to the Supreme Court. The team has completed stock taking in five cellars of the temple unearthing an unbelievably large treasure worth around Rs 1 lakh crore.

The team members, however, clarified that the apex court has not asked them to assess the value of the articles found at the temple. The value of the temple wealth that was discovered could be anybody’s guess, said Justice CS Rajan, a member of the panel.

Referring to the value of Rs 1 lakh crore that has been quoted in the media, he said that the “actual value could be much more or it could be less”. Justice Rajan was also of the opinion that the riches found at the Sree Padmanabha Swami Temple cannot be considered as a treasure.

According to him, it will not come under the Treasure Trove Act. The articles found at the temple are offerings given to Sree Padmanabha by the erstwhile rulers of Travancore. According to him, members of the royal family made these offerings over several decades. Its existence was known, only the details were unrecorded, he opined. The list of items inventoried was recorded in a register.

The panel used nearly five such registers to complete the listing of all the items that they checked. Justice Rajan was of the view that the allegations that the royal family members have taken out many articles from the cellars are baseless.He said that a decision on whether to open the sixth cellar would be taken on July 8. Meanwhile, the petitioner TP Sunderarajan has come out openly against the statements made by Justice Rajan.