A Jammu court that recently heard about the alleged Rs 550 crore fake silver offerings at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Ji shrine directed Deputy SP Bhawan, Katra, to submit a detailed inquiry report.
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Vaishno Devi fake silver case: Court orders evidence saved, detailed report sought | Image: ANI
Vaishno Devi Fake Silver Case: In the latest development in the Vaishno Devi fake silver case, the Jammu Chief Judicial Magistrate Munish Kumar Manhas has instructed Katra Deputy SP Bhawan to submit a detailed reportHe also directed authorities to preserve evidence before the next hearingThe court’s order came on July 29 after advocate Deepak Sharma filed a petition seeking immediate preservation of evidence such as physical, documentary, and electronic evidence.
CJM Manhas was hearing the case of alleged Rs 550 crore fake silver donations at the prominent Mata Vaishno Devi Ji temple.
The evidence relates to claims that about 20 tonnes of silver offered by devotees to the shrine were mixed with cheaper metals, swapped, stolen or misused.
The petitioner requested the court to protect all physical evidence such as the silver, remnants, residues, stock and vault records, weighing and dispatch registers, assay and laboratory reports, complete chain-of-custody record.
He urged the court to protect CCTV footage, electronic inventory data, emails, access records, accounting records and other digital evidence linked to the alleged silver scam at the Vaishno Devi temple.
The complaint was submitted on May 9 to IGP (crime branch) Jammu and SSP (crime branch, EOW) JammuThe crime branch received the complaint after two days and forwarded it to the headquarters for necessary actionThe crime branch HQ approved the reference to zonal police after which it was forwarded to IGP (Jammu) on June 13.
According to the SSP, police teams are investigating the matter no FIR has been registered yet.
The next hearing is scheduled on August 18.
The controversy started when nearly 20 tonnes donated silver, valued at around Rs 550 crore, was sent for processingTests allegedly revealed that only 5 to 6 percent of silver was real, while the rest was made of cheap metals such as cadmium and iron.
The complaint calls for an investigation to check if vendors sold fake silver to devotees or if genuine silver offerings were swapped or stolen during the storage, testing and transportation process.
