Thrissur: Workers draining the holy well at Sree Krishna Temple in Guruvayur on Friday retrieved from the pit slush a necklace that is believed to have once adorned Guruvayurappan and gone missing for nearly three decades.
Guruvayur Devaswom managing committee chairman T.V. Chandramohan said the ornament resembled the necklace that had been missing along with two other scared ornaments. But the genuineness of the necklace had to be verified. The jury is still out on whether the necklace is the same as the 60 gram Nagapadathali, which went missing along with the 45 gram Malalakshmi necklace and 90 gram Neelakkamal Necklace. The ornaments were first noted missing among items handed over by the then melsanthi, Kakkad Damodaran Nampoothiry, to his successor when he laid down office in April 1985.
The theft/disappearance of sacred ornaments had kicked up a controversy. Damodaran Nampoothiry and two sons were subjected to lie-detector test but were acquitted in 1996.
