Huge temple treasure catch becomes a security nightmare

Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in the southern state of India – Kerala has now become a “security concern,” after the discovery of a huge treasure consisting of gold, silver, precious stones and priceless jewellery in its vaults. The temple is situated in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram.

The Kerala government has drawn up a special security plan, which includes the deployment of armed policemen and round-the-clock mobile police patrolling. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy reviewed the security arrangements with top police officials.

For years, the Padmanabhaswamy temple, a Vaishnavite shrine devoted to Lord Vishnu in Kerala, has maintained a relatively low profile, before emerging suddenly as the richest temple in a country of many rich shrines. The treasure is roughly estimated to be worth more than Rs 1 lakh crore ($22 billion).

The temple has been put under 24-hour police vigil even as the court-appointed panel deferred the opening of the last of the six underground chambers. India’s Supreme Court ordered the opening of the vaults at Padmanabhaswamy to assess the wealth of the temple after a local activist, T. P. Sundararajan, filed a case accusing administrators of mismanaging and poorly guarding the temple. Descendants of the royal family still control the trust that manages the temple.

The Supreme Court will decide what happens to the treasure and the rest of the temple once it has established the total value of the holdings, which could take months to finish.

The city police has launched a round-the-cloak mobile patrolling to monitor the security of the temple, where the stock taking of the treasures hidden in the secret underground chambers is still continuing.

“We have temporarily set up the control room at the Fort police station. We will shift this to a building near the temple very soon,” a senior official said.

Besides local police, 50 members of the armed battalion, who have received special training, have been deployed around the temple. All the entry points have been brought under heavy guard.

The security was stepped up following a decision taken at a high level meeting convened by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to provide fool-proof security at the cost of the state government. Chandy said that his government was for preserving the treasures as the temple’s own property.

“We are ready to protect the temple wealth. We will chart out measures for the permanent security in consultation with the Travancore Royal family, which administers the temple now, and the chief priest of the temple,” he added.

The chief minister said that the government would submit a report on the permanent security to the Supreme Court for approval.

He has directed Additional Chief Secretary K Jayakumar, who is also a member of the court-appointed panel to take inventory of the temple property, to prepare the report.

Additional Director-General of Police Venugopal K Nair, who is in-charge of the temple security, reviewed the security inside and outside the temple. He said the underground vaults where the treasures are preserved were safe.

A stunning range of gold ornaments, idols inlaid with precious stones, jewels, heaps of solid gold coins and silver and gold platters and lamps have been discovered from the cellars so far.