Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee seeks state govt advice on Gupta brothers' offer

The Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee today sought the advice of the state government on whether or not to accept an offer from the controversial Gupta brothers to cover the ceiling of the sanctum sanctorum of Badrinath shrine with gold plate, its chairman said.

"Temple commmittee has learnt that Gupta brothers who offered to cover the ceiling of the sanctum sanctorum of the Himalayan shrine are facing criminal charges being probed by the Enforcement Directorate. In the light of this information I have written to the Religious Tourism and Culture Department asking for their advice on whether or not to accept the offer," Badrinath-Kedarnath temple committee Chairman Ganesh Godiyal told reporters here.

The commitee has also asked the state government to inform the ED about the offer made by the Gupta brothers, he said.

Godiyal said the Gupta brothers who made the offer last year never contacted the committee to say when they proposed to make the offering.

He said the offer was made by the Gupta brothers at a function when they came to pay obeisance at the temple last year.

The board of the temple committee had passed the proposal made by the Gupta brothers onNovember 27 last year as they had no information of the charges the Guptas were facing.

The Gupta brothers - Ajay, Rajesh and Atul - hail from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh and now live in South Africa. According to reports they are successful businessmen who are said to be close to president Jacob Zuma.