43 kg fake gold offered at Vaishno Devi temple

Forty-three kg of gold and 57,000 kg of silver offered by devotees at the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu and Kashmir have been found to be fake, an RTI application has revealed.

The RTI query elicited the information that 193.5 kg of gold and 81,635 kg of silver was offered at the shrine at Katra town in the last five years.

"Of this, 43 kg of gold and 57,815 kg of silver turned out to be fake," M.K. Bhandari, chief executive officer of the board that manages the shrine, told IANS.

"We send the precious metal offerings to the government for melting and converting (them) into gold and silver coins which the devotees buy as souvenirs."

He said some devotees may be buying gold and silver without checking their purity.

The Shri Mata Vaishno Devi temple is one of the most revered shrines. It was visited by over one crore devotees last year.