Padmanabhaswamy Temple gold mystery: Misplaced or deliberately abandoned?

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Thiruvananthapuram DCP Nakul Deshmukh has provided a statement regarding the recovery of the gold that had gone missing from the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple. According to the DCP, initial findings suggest that this was not a case of theft. He said that it is likely that someone may have misplaced the gold. However, he did not rule out the possibility that someone could have abandoned it after the incident became controversial. This possibility has also been included within the scope of the ongoing investigation, he added.

The missing gold was found buried in a sand-covered area about 40 meters away from the temple's strong room. Metal detectors had been used to scan the area until noon. Later in the evening, temple officials and police found the gold during a manual search without using any machinery. The DCP explained that there were seven people in the group who transported the gold to the strong room. Only the gold sceptre had fallen from the cloth bag in which the gold was kept. He pointed out that even though it lay near the temple corridor, no one had noticed it.

The missing item was a 13-sovereign gold sceptre stored in the temple management committee’s locker. Renovation work was underway at the door in front of the sanctum sanctorum, where old gold embellishments were being replaced with new ones. The gold was found to be missing when the work, temporarily halted on Wednesday, resumed the following day. Despite an entire day of searches by the police and temple security, the gold was not found initially. The gold used for temple renovation is stored in the strong room. Executive Officer B. Mahesh had earlier clarified that the gold is weighed and recorded both when taken out for work and when returned.