The Sabarimala shrine gold loot that the Congress used to corner the previous Left Front government is now haunting its own dispensation in Kerala. To the V.D Satheesan government’s embarrassment, advocate K.B. Pradeep, its pick for the post of special pleader for the Devaswom department, has stepped down within days of appointment.
The reason: Pradeep, it turned out, had represented Smart Creations, a company figuring in the gold theft investigation. He resigned following chief minister Satheesan’s directive forced by the mounting attack of the Opposition CPI(M) and BJP.
The chief minister, who handles the law department, had come under questioning by the Opposition as well as leaders of his own party for appointing a lawyer who had defended an entity suspected in the temple gold loot case.
Pradeep’s appointment prompted CPI(M) state secretary M.V. Govindan Master to ask if the special pleader had vetted the gold loot files during his brief period on the job. “K.B. Pradeep’s resignation won’t save the government. He was appointed by the chief minister to abort the gold loot probe. It was an attempt to save the accused,” Govindan Master charged, while speaking to INDIA TODAY.
The special investigation team (SIT), which is probing the gold loot, had raised concerns over the appointment, with director general of police Ravada A. Chandrasekhar apparently meeting Satheesan to brief him about the ‘consequences’.
Devaswoms minister K. Muraleedharan had initially defended the appointment with the unusual rationale that having a lawyer “who knows the weaknesses of the accused” would be advantageous to the prosecution. He subsequently distanced himself from the appointment.
Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan alleged the appointment was an attempt to sabotage the gold loot investigation. “Everybody now understands why the chief minister needed the counsel of the accused as special pleader in the Sabarimala gold loot case. It’s clear the government wanted to save the accused,” Vijayan claimed.
Around 4.5 kg of 24-carat gold, out of the 30.3 kg donated to the Sabarimala temple by industrialist Vijay Mallya in 1998, were found missing in 2019. The accusation is that the gold plates were fraudulently transferred out to Chennai in the name of renovation. Several people, including a Sabarimala temple priest and former officials of the Travancore Devaswom Board, which manages the shrine, have been named accused. Multiple arrests have been made.
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