Pathanamthitta/Thiruvananthapuram: The executive officer of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), who was entrusted with the scrutiny of the Thiruvabharanam Register, has found that the stock of gold and silver offered by devotees at Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple was intact.

Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran had sought clarification from the board following allegations that mismatches were found in records pertaining to about 40 kg gold and 100 kg silver received as offerings at the temple over the years.

The process of verifying the stock register at the ‘Bhandaram’ at Sannidhanam and the records kept at the Devaswom strong room at Aranmula to check whether the two correspond with each other was completed on Monday. The scrutiny was carried out under the supervision of High Court-appointed Local Fund Audit special officer Prathap Kumar and senior grade auditor Navaneeth.

As per the practice, valuable articles including gold and silver received as offering at the temple were being kept safe in the TDB strong room at Aranmula after properly entering their details in the Thiruvabharanam Register. (Thiruvabharanam maens sacred ornaments used to adorn the deity.)

An audit team headed by Tiruvabharanam Commissioner K S Baiju has been conducting the physical verification of the stock of gold and silver kept at the TDB strong room since the past six months. They were received as offerings during the past 50 years,

During the scrutiny, the team could confirm prompt entry of 5,720 valuable articles out of the 10,413 items offered by the devotees, an official attached to the TDB said.

Over the years, as many as 4,693 items had been taken for use in the installation of golden temple mast at various temples attached to the TDB. The Devaswom authorities have reportedly informed the Audit wing that the verification of the remaining 800 articles would be completed in three months’ time.

Meanwhile, dismissing the allegations as utterly false and baseless, the Devaswom Minister and TDB president A Padmakumar said that concerted attempts were being made by vested interests to malign Sabarimala and the board.

“The allegation of improper maintenance of stock register is a lie. A former officer, who held the grade accountant post three years ago when Prayar Gopalakrishan was the Devaswom president, refused to hand over the official charge to a successor when he retired from service. When the present board took action against him for flouting the rules, he moved the court seeking a direction to the TDB for settling his pension. The court directed the TDB to complete the verification in a time-bound manner and settle the issue at the earliest. It is the delay in completing the verification process which led to the confusion now. The auditors have found that no offerings made by devotees at Sabarimala were missing. Such baseless allegations will only help in strengthening the divisive forces in the society,” the minister said.