Explained: The controversy surrounding the auction of the famous Thar owned by Kerala's Guruvayur temple

The Sree Krishna Temple in Kerala’s Guruvayur on Monday re-auctioned a brand-new Thar SUV for Rs 43 lakh. The vehicle, which was offered to the temple by the Mahindra Group, landed in controversy in an earlier auction over the winning bidder’s religion. On Monday, Vignesh Vijayakumar, a native of the state’s Malappuram district and a businessman in Dubai, was the highest bidder for the SUV. He was among 15 bidders who took part in the re-auction. What was the controversy? In the earlier auction held in December last year, Bahrain-based NRI Amal Mohammed Ali was the sole bidder whose winning bid was of only Rs 15.10 lakh. According to The Indian Express, Ali, a native of Ernakulam, had asked his friend Subhash Panicker to participate in the bid on his behalf. The auction landed in controversy after Ali won the bid for Rs 15.10 lakh, since he was the only bidder. A section of the temple’s board raised strong reservations over handing the vehicle, which was offered to the Hindu deity, to a non-Hindu. Ali had insisted on the release of the vehicle as he had won the auction. The temple administration held a meeting on 21 December and decided to accept Amal’s bid. However, the hand-off was not going to be smooth. How did the case land in Kerala High Court? The Hindu Seva Kendram, Ernakulam, filed a petition in the High Court challenging the auction conducted by the Guruvayur Devaswom Managing Committee and sought to restrain it from transferring the ownership of the vehicle. The petitioner alleged that the vehicle was auctioned at a price lesser than its on-road price of Rs 15.90 lakh. It stated that the permission of the Devaswom Commissioner must be sought if the value of the goods in the auction is beyond Rs 5,000. However, this rule was also violated. According to The Hindu, the petitioner pointed out that serious irregularity and illegality were perpetrated by the Guruvayur Devaswom. The action of the administrator in auctioning the vehicle before the managing committee took a decision was illegal. It was in violation of the provisions of the Guruvayur Devaswom Act and the general principles regarding the auction. The court directed the Devaswom Commissioner to hear all parties involved in the matter. Following the commissioner’s order, the administrative committee of Guruvayur Devaswom decided to put up the Mahindra Group gifted limited edition Thar SUV for auction again. With inputs from agencies Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.