Discrepancies in accounts of Global Ayyappa Sangamam; HC seeks explanation from devaswom board

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has sought an explanation from the devaswom board on the discrepancies in the income and expenditure accounts of the Global Ayyappa Sangam. The court found discrepancies in the audit report submitted by the special commissioner. It has been directed to submit the exact figures to the court within ten days.
It is learnt that the report submitted by the SIT to the high court in the Sabarimala gold theft case has mentioned about the Global Ayyappa Sangamam. P S Prasanth was the devaswom board president at that time. The SIT report says the decision to hold the Ayyappa Sangamam is not in the minutes of the devaswom meeting.

The devaswom board has incurred a loss of Rs 3.40 crore by conducting the Global Ayyappa Sangamam. The high court had directed that the money of the devaswom board or the government should not be used for the Ayyappa Sangam. Reports say more than Rs 3 crore was spent from the surplus fund of the devaswom board as the money that was expected to be raised through sponsorship was not received.

Meantime, devaswom minister V N Vasavan said that he is aware of the Rs 4 crore received through sponsorship for the Global Ayyappa Sangamam. The rest of the details should be revealed by the devaswom board. The government has only made the arrangements for the sangamam. The minister also pointed that the Sabarimala gold theft came to light because of the Ayyappa Sangamam.