Thiruvananthapuram: The Travancore Devaswom Board on Tuesday suspended a senior officer in connection with the gold theft case at the Sabarimala Ayyappa Swamy temple.
B Murari Babu, currently serving as the Devaswom Deputy Commissioner (Haripad), has been suspended from service, the TDB said in a statement.
Babu, who was serving as an administrative officer at the temple, committed a "serious lapse" by submitting a report to the Sabarimala executive officer on July 17, 2019, the statement said.
The report wrongly described the gold-plated gatekeeper idols found on both sides of the temple entrance as copper-plated.
Speaking to reporters in Alappuzha, Babu denied the allegations against him and said that the TDB has not yet sought any explanation from him.
“The ‘Dwarapalaka’ idols on either side of the sanctum sanctorum door were only given a thin layer of gold plating. The sanctum sanctorum was given gold plating in 1998 under the sponsorship of industrialist Vijay Mallya. It had eroded and only a copper plate remained. It is referred to as copper because the base metal is copper,” Babu told the media.