Supreme Court seeks help of experts to protect Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple treasure

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday warned against any claim over the Rs 1 lakh crore treasure unearthed in Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram and sought expert help in protecting the rare ancient artifacts and statues brought out after opening the vaults.

A bench of Justices R V Raveendran and A K Patnaik asked all prospective claimants to lay off from the treasure and questioned media reports about the values being attached to the treasure that had been lying locked for years before being brought out by a Supreme Court-appointed committee.

The bench fixed hearing on the matter for Friday while seeking assistance from expert curators from National Museum to help preserve the ancient statues and artifacts belonging to the temple.

The judges, however, ridiculed media reports about the value of the riches and said, "What is appearing in newspapers is just surmises and conjectures."

The bench wanted expert help to identify which of the ancient items needed preservation, those which could be displayed in a museum and the security needed for this purpose.