Farcical Search For Fabulous Jewellery Of Vizianagaram Samsthanam

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MANSAS trust chairman P Ananda Gajapati Raju and Endowments department assistant commissioner verifying the ornaments of the locker in Vizianagaram on

 

VIZIANAGARAM,: In what appear to be scenes straight out of a farce, clueless Endowments Department officials are holding keys to a locker which they just cannot locate and which is said to contain jewellery worth crores deposited by the Vizianagaram royalty.

The story dates back to the 1950s when the Vizianagaram Samsthanam handed over gold and silver idols and jewellery of various temples, including the Anjaneya Swami and Mahalakshmi temples in the fort, to a trust -- the Maharaja Alak Narayana Society for Arts and Science (MANSAS), which on 8 May 1957 deposited the jewellery in two lockers in the State Bank of India, Vizianagaram.

P Ananda Gajapathi Raju, the elder son of PVG Raju, is the chairman of the trust.

The lockers were opened only once -- in 1962 -- and the keys to the two lockers are in the custody of MANSAS Trust.

Over the last 40 years, the bank has been sending reminders to the Endowments Department for payment of annual renewal fee for one locker only.

No such reminders were being received in respect of the second locker.

Yesterday, when Ananda Gajapathi Raju wished to make an inspection, he could find only one locker. Despite his efforts, the other proved elusive.

According to sources, the MANSAS management has a long list of ornaments from the various temples in the fort and stashed away in the second locker, whereas in the first locker there are mostly silver ornaments along with a few gold ones.

``It is a mystery. We have the keys but there is no locker to insert them into. We have to find out where the second locker is. According to the records there are several items of gold jewellery worth crores of rupees. I am very unhappy.

I have asked the Assistant Commissioner to make a quick inquiry and get back to me. The value of the jewellery which we are trying to locate is about Rs 10 crore,’’ Ananda Gajapathi said.

Gold idols of Lord Vishnu, Radhakrishna, Lord Eeswar, Lord Ganapathi, Vishnu Padalu, a gold and silver stand, gold idol of Lord Krishna with Makarathoranam, two large golden bowls, gold Kalasam and many more small items are supposed to have been kept in the second locker. Samsthanam Diwan C Lakshminarayana Sastry, Fort priest D Suryanarayana and clerk B Narasimha Murthy signed the documents when the property was kept in the second locker of the bank.

Assistant commissioner Ch Hanumantha Rao informed the District Collector and Endowments Commissioner about the missing locker and is making inquiries with the other branches of the State Bank of India as there is likelihood of the locker having been shifted.