Dehradun. For the last 2 years, there have been allegations that the gold placed in the sanctum sanctorum of the Kedarnath temple, one of the four Dhams of Uttarakhand, was stolen. Recently, Swami Avimukteshwarananda had also made this allegation. Now, a clarification has come from Shri Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee i.e. BKTC in this regard. BKTC has clarified that gold was not stolen from the Kedarnath temple and it has no role in placing this gold in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple.
The allegation of theft of 23 kg gold from the sanctum sanctorum of Kedarnath temple was first made by Tirtha Purohit and Vice President of Chardham Mahapanchayat Santosh Trivedi. He had alleged that a businessman from Mumbai had donated 23.78 kg gold for the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. This gold was applied as a coating and was stolen. There was a lot of politics on this. The opposition surrounded the BJP government and asked where did the gold go? Now BKTC has issued a press note stating that confusion is being spread on social media as part of a conspiracy about the theft of gold. BKTC has said that it was taken from the person who donated the gold as per the rules and permission was also taken from the Uttarakhand government for applying gold coating in the sanctum sanctorum of Kedarnath temple. The work of applying gold coating in the sanctum sanctorum of Kedarnath temple was done under the supervision of ASI experts.
BKTC has also said that the donor himself installed gold in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple in the year 2005. Before installing the gold, the copper plates were also installed by the donor himself through his jeweler. According to the temple committee, the donor himself got all the work done in Kedarnath and the temple committee had no direct role. After installing the copper plates and gold plating, the related bills were given to the temple committee. BKTC has said that in a video released on social media, it is being claimed that gold worth Rs 1.15 billion was installed in the sanctum sanctorum of the Kedarnath temple. Whereas, the reality is that 23777.800 grams of gold plating and 1001.300 kg of copper plates worth Rs 14.38 crore were installed. The price of the copper plate is Rs 29 lakh. The temple committee has also said that it is taking legal action against those spreading misleading information in this matter.