Kedarnath Temple ‘Gold Scam’ : Uttarakhand panel to investigate alleged fraud in the gold plating of the Kedarnath temple

The Uttarakhand government has chosen to form a high-level committee to look into claims of a Rs. 1.25 billion scam involving the gold plating of the Kedarnath temple’s sanctum sanctorum.

Satpal Maharaj, the state’s minister of tourism, religion, and culture, announced on Friday that he has directed Harichandra Semwal, the secretary of culture and religious affairs, to set up a high-level inquiry committee with the Garhwal commissioner as its chairman to investigate the situation. He has requested that the inquiry committee include both technical experts and goldsmiths.
The issue is “extremely sensitive” to the state government. Maharaj declared that those found guilty would face punishment. He explained that the donation was accepted and permission was sought from the state government to gold-plate the sanctum sanctorum of the Kedarnath temple in accordance with the provisions of the Shri Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee Act, 1939.

According to him, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) experts oversaw the gold plating of the sanctum sanctorum.
According to him, the donor did all of the work—from purchasing the gold to arranging to have it inlaid on the sanctum sanctorum walls—by himself, with no involvement on the part of the temple committee.

After the work was finished, the donor also gave the temple committee the official bill and other papers.
The minister declared that the report of the inquiry committee would serve as the only basis for determining the truth and ensuring further action.
Additionally, he charged that the opposition parties were attempting to disrupt the Chardham Yatra by giving this issue “unnecessary” weight.

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The Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee previously released a statement stating that 1,001.300 kg of copper plates were used for the gilded work, with a total weight of 23,777.800 grammes of gold being used in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple, which has a current value of approximately Rs 14.38 crore.
The committee disputes the claim that Kedarnath’s sanctum sanctorum’s gold plating cost one billion, five hundred crore rupees.
In a recent video posted to social media, Teerth Purohit of the Kedarnath Temple and Santosh Trivedi, vice president of the Chardham Mahapanchayat, claimed that brass had been plated over the walls of the sanctum sanctorum rather than gold, and that a scam involving about 1.25 billion rupees had occurred.

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Source-Mint