Royal family irked with Padmanabha assets being made public

Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 6: With the temple treasure in Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple stealing the limelight and featuring as top news in every major media channel in the country, the exquisite details of the massive haul had been splashed across media since the last few days. It seems the Travancore royal family is not too pleased with the turn of events.

Following the extreme speculations and rumours abuzz on the Rs 1 lakh crore booty, the royal family is all set to appeal to the Supreme Court to avoid disclosing the details of the assets. A senior palace official has been quoted as saying that the family will make the appeal after the earlier petition filed by one of the elder members in the family, Moolam Tirunal Ramavarma comes before the Supreme Court for hearing. The source added, “The family is upset by this media frenzy and wants things to be kept under wraps till the inventory is over."

The fact that one of the court observers spoke eloquently on the treasure trove has irked the family all the more. Speaking to a private Malayalam television channel, the SC observer Justice C.S. Rajan had said on Tuesday that the treasure was mesmerizing and that he had not seen such large quantities of gold ever in his life. He also stated that the details of the treasures have been recorded, the details of which will be presented to the Supreme Court in an interim report.

He had also added that the values quoted by the media were mere speculations and the exact figures were yet to be ascertained. He also stated that the assets found cannot be classified as 'treasure' and will not fall under the state government's regulation on such assets. [Read: Who will rule over the Padmanabha swamy temple booty?]

The palace source commented, “All these disclosures have created a security situation which would prevent devotees of the city from having a quite darshan of Lord Padmanabha. The royals are upset by this." The added fact that the royal family was not consulted when imposing security arrangements have also not gone down well with the family.

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