Round-the-clock police patrolling around the famous Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram was put in place on Monday as the stock-taking of priceless assets, hidden in the shrine’s cellars, by a Supreme Court-appointed panel resumed after a day's break.
The patrolling, monitored by an exclusive control room set up at the Fort police station, was enforced based on the decision taken by a high-level meeting convened by chief minister Oommen Chandy on Sunday.
"The security of the shrine is strong and satisfactory," ADGP Venugoapl K Nair, in-charge of the shrine's special security, told reporters.
The cellars of the shrine, managed by a trust controlled by the erstwhile Travancore royal family, has revealed invaluable wealth running into thousands of crores since the inventory got underway last week.
According to temple sources, the panel today made the list of articles in a chamber, which is frequently opened for using its jewellery, lamps and silver and brass platters for temple rituals.
A decision on searching one remaining chamber, which is seldom opened, was deferred as it required technical expertise and support to avoid damage to the structure. A decision on this was expected to be taken on Friday, the sources said.
Since the exercise started, five cellars had been examined and the list of articles found from them would be submitted to the apex court by the seven-member panel, which included two former high court judges.
A stunning range of gold ornaments, idols inlaid with precious stones, jewels, heaps of solid gold coins and silver and gold platters and lamps have been discovered from the cellars so far.
Though the panel members remained tightlipped on the value of the invaluabe articles found, temple sources indicated that they would be worth more than Rs 90,000 crore.
