High-level committee to probe alleged scam in gold plating at Kedarnath temple

Dehradun: The Uttarakhand government on Friday decided to set up a high-level committee to probe allegations of an alleged scam of Rs 1.25 billion in the gold plating of the sanctum sanctorum of the Kedarnath temple.

State's Tourism, Religion and Culture Minister Satpal Maharaj said he has instructed secretary culture and religious affairs Harichandra Semwal to constitute a high-level inquiry committee under the chairmanship of the Garhwal commissioner to get to the bottom of the matter.

He has asked the official to include technical experts as well as goldsmiths in the inquiry committee.

Action will be taken against whoever is found guilty in the investigation of the committee, Maharaj said.

He said the state government is 'extremely sensitive' to the matter which is related to religious faith.

He clarified that according to the provisions laid down in the Shri Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee Act-1939, the donation was accepted from the donor and permission was taken from the state government to gold-plate the sanctum sanctorum of the Kedarnath temple.

The gold plating of the sanctum sanctorum was done under the supervision of the experts of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), he said.

He said the entire work from buying gold to getting it inlaid on the walls of the sanctum sanctorum was done by the donor himself and the temple committee had no direct role in it.

After completion of the work, its official bill and other papers were also given by the donor to the temple committee.

The minister said the truth would be ascertained and further action would be ensured only on the basis of the report of the inquiry committee.

He also accused the opposition parties of trying to disturb the Chardham Yatra by giving 'unnecessary' weightage to this matter.

Earlier, the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee had issued a statement saying that 23,777.800 grams of gold were used in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple, which has a current value of about Rs 14.38 crore, while the total weight of the copper plates used for the gilded work is 1,001.300 kg, which has a total value of Rs 29 lakhs.

The committee has denied that one billion 15 crore rupees were spent in the gold plating of Kedarnath sanctum sanctorum as is being propagated.

Recently, Teerth Purohit of Kedarnath Temple and Vice President of Chardham Mahapanchayat Santosh Trivedi released a video on social media alleging that instead of gold layer on the walls of the sanctum sanctorum, brass has been plated and a scam of about 1.25 billion rupees has taken place.