Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple.
Credit: PTI Photo
Thiruvananthapuram: Mystery shrouds the theft of a vessel from the famed Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram even as the police are now stating that the case might be one of 'misplacing' the ceremonial object rather than one of theft.
The incident has raised eyebrows as the temple has an extremely high security cover owing to the presence of priceless valuables in its inner chambers.
The brass vessel used for keeping prasada inside the temple went missing on October 13. The temple authorities reported it to the police on October 15. The suspects were identified with the help of CCTV footage and the police tracked them to Haryana.
They include a doctor with Australian citizenship, his wife and sister. Two of them are Haryana natives and one of them is from Punjab.
In a twist to the incident, the accused had told the police that they did not steal the vessel. A temple priest gave it to them and they did not make any payment. They also said that the temple security did not prevent them from taking it.
Another version of events that is doing the rounds is that the vessel in which the 'suspects' were carrying their offerings fell inside the temple. The temple staff who helped them retrieve the offerings had, mistakenly, given them the temple's vessel instead of their own vessel.
City police commissioner Sparjan Kumar told DH that the theft angle was now being 'reverified' as the chances that it was all a misunderstanding hasn't been ruled out.
According to police sources, the suspects' vessel looked quite similar to the one that went missing from the temple. So the chances that the vessels were mistaken for each other and exchanged hands erroneously is being probed now. The antecedents of the suspects are also being verified.
This fresh incident took place close on the heels of another row over serving chicken biriyani in an office associated with the temple. The Devaswom bench of the Kerala High Court has even directed the temple authorities to take action against those responsible. A staff at the office distributed chicken biryani to his colleagues to celebrate the achievement of his son.