Thiruvananthapuram. Kerala BJP on Tuesday staged a massive protest demanding accountability in the alleged Sabarimala gold theft case. Kerala BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan should “apologize to Lord Ayyappa” for the way the matter was handled. This statement was made during the party’s ‘Ayyappa Jyoti’ protest organized outside the Chief Minister’s official residence ‘Cliff House’. In the protest, BJP workers lit lamps and raised slogans and accused the government of protecting the real culprits and targeting the devotees and the temple management. Chandrashekhar alleged that the arrest of the Tantri (chief priest) of Sabarimala was politically motivated and done without sufficient evidence. He claims that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) took action to protect the Devaswom minister and other people in the government in the gold theft case.
He said the court had clearly remarked that there was no solid evidence against Tantri; Despite this, the arrest was made hastily. According to him, this step was taken to divert attention from bigger questions related to the alleged gold scam. The BJP put forward three major demands, including a CBI probe into the Sabarimala gold case, withdrawal of the affidavit filed by the state government in the Supreme Court and quashing of “false cases” registered against the devotees.
The party also alleged that some middlemen in the case were working on behalf of both the CPI(M) and the Congress, causing the investigation to be “politically influenced”. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, while hearing a related case, asked whether there was still gold left in the temple.
The top court raised this question while considering the bail plea of accused Pankaj Bhandari and has fixed the next hearing for March 9. So far, a total of 13 people have been arrested in this case, out of which six have been granted bail, while the remaining accused have also filed bail petitions. –
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