SABARIMALA: Regikumar, a Devaswom employee, was remanded for stealing gold deposited as an offering in the kanikka. He was arrested by the Devaswom Vigilance and remanded by the Ranni Court yesterday. He is an employee of Ettumanoor Group Vasudevapuram Devaswam and was on special duty during masa puja. The incident that took place on the 16th was found through the CCTV camera.

Although gold and money are often stolen from the sannidhanam kannika, it is rarely caught. Kerala Kaumudi had published news during the last Makaravilak period regarding the loss and destruction of gold and money. After the High Court intervened, the gold, coins and notes collected in the kannika were separated and counted. Notes falling on the conveyors can get stuck in the machine parts and get damaged. However, more staff has not been appointed and proper and scientific systems have not been set up for monitoring.

Even in this day and age of artificial intelligence cameras to detect violations and state-of-the-art machines to count money, Sabarimala is using staff to count crores of notes and money. Devaswom employees' organizations have been demanding for a long time that a modern system should be put in place to separate and count the money in the kanikka. Employees attribute the theft of cash and gold to a lack of adequate staff and surveillance systems.

Gold is accepted in two ways

Devotees can offer gold in two ways at Sabarimala. Devotees who arrive with a receipt stating the quantity and actual weight of the gold can submit it directly to the Nada after recording the same and getting a receipt in the 3rd Nada. Those who don't have such a receipt can submit it at the kanikka at Nada. After verifying that it is gold, the employee will record it in the duty slip and record the number and weight and add it to the Devaswom asset. On the last 16th, the gold deposited in the kanikka like this was stolen by the employee without writing the slip.