Expert panel insists on opening temple vault ‘B’

Tuesday, September 13, 2011: The seven-member panel appointed by the Supreme Court to take an inventory of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple treasure, has insisted that the vault ‘B’ of the temple must be opened.

In a security interim report submitted before the Apex Court the panel headed by Administrator of the National Museum C.V. Ananda Bose informed that the vault ‘B’ must be opened for assessing the condition of the chamber and for security of the valuables inside it. 

The committee also pointed out that they would go ahead with the inventory process even though the “Devaprasnam” warned against evaluation of the assets found in the temples.

Of the six vaults, five have been opened so far and their inventory prepared by the panel. The face value of the gold and precious artifacts recovered so far has been unofficially put at Rs 1 lakh crore.