A Petition was filed in the Kerala High Court to inquire whether the Guruvayur temple income has been diverted to cooperative societies. This move comes after reports surfaced that cooperative banks were looting citizens all over Kerala. Were the Guruvayur Devaswom funds deposited in any cooperative societies?
Thiruvananthapuram Neyyatinkara resident P.S. Mahendra Kumar said this demand is in the backdrop of reports of illegal financial transactions in cooperative societies all over the state. The Guruvayur Devaswom has enormous wealth, including money devotees offer to Guruvayurappan, valuables, including gold, and money paid for poojas and rituals.
These funds are usually deposited in various banks. The Devaswom Bench should immediately inquire whether the deposit is only in accountable banks or cooperative societies. Recent developments show that the Kerala government and related apparatus work unfairly and illegally.
During the tenure of K. Karunakaran (Congress) as Chief Minister, the government availed a Rs 25 crore ‘loan’ from Guruvayur Devaswom. Allegedly, this amount is yet to be returned to the temple.
More recently, Rs 10 crore of Guruvayur funds were transferred to Pinarayi Vijayan’s (Communist) Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, disregarding Devaswom rules. The Kerala High Court later quashed this action. According to the court’s order, transferring the temple fund for other purposes was improper because it was intended to develop the temple and its supporting services.
During the term of rabidly anti-Hindu G. Sudhakaran as Devaswom and Cooperative Minister, there were media reports that Guruvayur Devaswom invested Rs 450 crore in various cooperative societies – the petition points out. He was in charge between 2016 to 2021.
In this scenario, Mahendra Kumar, a temple devotee, submitted the matter to the Devaswom Bench of the High Court. If the Devaswom funds have been invested in cooperatives, then it is feared an enormous scam and loot of a famous Hindu temple will be exposed. Temple finances are rarely audited in Kerala, and reports are never made public.
HinduPost recently reported how the multi-crore Karuvannur Cooperative Bank fraud case is rocking Kerala. Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers arrested the municipal councilor and CPM leader from the Wadakkanchery municipality, P.R. Aravindakshan, for his involvement. The agency calculates that after false loans were given to multiple people, more than Rs 300 crore was stolen from the bank.
Aravindakshan, a CPI(M) local committee member and a close aide of CPM leader and former Minister A.C. Moideen, is the first political leader to be arrested by ED in connection with Karuvannur. Earlier, the ED questioned Moideen MLA and CPI-M state committee member MK Kannan on their suspected participation in the fraud. Incidentally, both Karuvannur Bank and Guruvayur Temple are in the Thrissur district.
