Thiruvananthapuram, July 22, 2013: The Home Department has passed adverse remarks against the Administrative Officer of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram.

In a confidential report on May 30 furnished to M. Velayudhan Nair, coordinator of the expert committee appointed by the court for inventorying and documenting the valuables in the temple vaults, the Principal Secretary to the Home Department said that the Administrative Officer “had made many lapses earlier in maintaining the temple properties and many allegations of corruption connected with the temple are existing against him.”

The Secretary has made the remarks after verifying the character and antecedents of the persons appointed as Administrative Officer of the expert committee, Executive Officer and the Administrative Officer of the temple.

The Home Department had conducted the verification on the basis of a request from the expert committee’s office on March 11 and also on the basis of directions from the Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) on May 24. The verification was reported to have been made for issuing passes to the officials for entering the vaults to assist the expert committee members for the inventorying process.

The Secretary says he was informed that the Administrative Officer concerned was an accused in a sexual harassment case registered at the Fort Police Station and is now under trial at the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court II, Thiruvananthapuram. He was excluded from the case when it was charge-sheeted. But the de facto complainant, a woman temple employee, had filed a complaint in the court against the exclusion of the officer and it was still pending against him. Another case challenging his appointment was also pending at the Munsiff Court III. At the same time, the department has given a clean chit to the Administrative Officer at the office of the expert committee and the Executive Officer of the temple.

Source: The Hindu, DT. July 22, 2013.