Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], October 11 (ANI): After Kerala High Court directed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the alleged Sabarimala gold theft incident, Devasom Board Minister VN Vasavan said that vigilance inquiry has found lapses at the official level and the government has faith in the judiciary.

'The Vigilance inquiry has found lapses at the official level. Everyone responsible for this incident must be exposed, and no culprit should escape justice. The government has full faith in the judiciary. What has taken place is nothing short of theft, and there can be no justification for it,' Vasavan told reporters.

The court has directed that the investigation be completed and a report submitted within six weeks. The court said, the investigation should be kept strictly confidential. No information related to the investigation should be leaked. The division bench of the High Court has also directed, in an interim order, that the special investigation team submit a sealed cover directly to the court.

The court directed that the special investigation team should only inform the court about the investigation. The investigation information should not be disclosed to anyone else.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader V Muraleedharan earlier launched a scathing attack on the Kerala government and said state administration of betraying the trust of devotees and demanded the immediate dismissal of the Devaswom Minister along with the dissolution of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB).

'It is a clear indication of the fact that the High Court doesn't trust the Devaswom board and the government, because the court has said that it will do a criminal investigation... It's a clear indictment of the state government, nothing beyond that, nothing less than that. I don't understand how the Devaswom minister is still clinging to his chair and the Devaswom board president is still in position. Why does the government not dismiss the minister and dissolve the board? This has been our demand. Now the court has very clearly mentioned that there has been a robbery... It's daylight robbery,' he said.

The controversy pertains to alleged irregularities in the gold plating work at the Sabarimala temple, which involved 30.3 kilograms of gold and 1,900 kilograms of copper donated by industrialist Vijay Mallya in 1998 for cladding the sanctum sanctorum and wooden carvings of the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala. (ANI)