Kasaragod: Kasaragod Town Police booked a former secretary and custodian of an Ayyappa Bhajana Mandiram for criminal breach of trust and theft after devotees discovered the 32-gram gold chain around the Lord Ayyappa's silver relief had been replaced with a fake of equal weight.

According to the complaint, Dayananda Shetty, who runs a hardware shop at Kudlu near Kasaragod town, flicked the chain valued at Rs 2.6 lakh, sometime between January 1, 2021, and January 30, 2025.

The case was registered, however, only after high drama unfolded at the 60-year-old Shri Ayyappa Bhajana Mandiram at Shastha Nagar in Ramdas Nagar in Madhur Grama Panchayat on the outskirts of Kasaragod town on Friday, January 31. "Initially, Dayananda (Shetty) refused to admit he took the chain. When he threatened to call in the police, he told us that the chain fell into the temple's well while he was cleaning the ornament," said Venugopal K, president of the Bhajana Mandiram, who filed the police complaint.

The well is considered sacred, and its water can be drawn only after a bath and used only for rituals. However, the temple committee decided to call in Fire and Rescue personnel from Kasaragod Fire Station to search for the chain. "We knew he was lying, but we thought he might have dropped the chain into the well later to save face and return it to the temple," said Venugopal.

Four rescue personnel worked for four hours, from noon to 4 pm, pumping out the water from the well and searching through the muck. "We did not find the chain. He had lied," said a rescue officer from Kasaragod Fire Station.

By then, the bhajana mandiram was teeming with angry devotees. "I ensured Dayananda is not roughed up by the people else the case will take another turn," he said.

Dayananda Shetty served as the secretary and custodian of the Shri Ayyappa Bhajana Mandiram until 2022. In 2019, under his leadership, the Bhajana Mandiram — where Ayyappa devotees pray, sing devotional songs, and observe the 41-day penance before heading to Sabarimala — was renovated. As part of the renovation, devotees replaced the old photo of Lord Ayyappa with a repoussé silver relief worth Rs 3 lakh. "Back then, too, there were financial irregularities of around Rs 6 lakh. Dayananda said he would sell his property and return the money. He never did," said temple president Venugopal.

After the renovation, Shetty insisted that the existing 12-gram gold chain around the relief was not befitting the renovated Bhajana Mandiram. "I told him the temple’s financial condition wasn’t good enough to buy a new chain, but he was adamant. We placed an order on credit," Venugopal said.

The temple then gave Shetty Rs 12,000 and a gold coin as the first payment for the new chain. "He never paid the jeweller. When the jeweller reached out to us asking why we hadn't paid even a single rupee, we were embarrassed. We quickly raised the full amount and paid him before our temple anniversary in January 2020," he said.

As allegations against Shetty mounted, his temple committee was replaced in 2022.

In the first week of January this year, the Bhajana Mandiram celebrated its 60th anniversary. Last week, the present temple secretary noticed black mould on the gold chain and took it out to clean. But no amount of cleaning helped. "We grew suspicious because gold is easy to clean. So, we took it to the same jeweller," said Venugopal.

The jeweller immediately pointed out that the chain was not his design and looked machine-made. He weighed it — it was exactly 32 grams. Then, he tested it using an X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyser. Not a gram of gold was in it. The chain was entirely fake. "We were taken aback. Dayananda is a devout man who always chants 'Ayyappa, Ayyappa'. We never imagined he would betray the trust of the temple and its devotees," said Venugopal.