AMRITSAR (PTI) The state government of the northern Indian state of Punjab Monday returned to the Sikh temple management committee (SGPC) Rs 2.473 million in currency notes and 382 kg of coins, seized from the Golden Temple during operations blue star and black thunder, state governor, Sidhartha Shankar Ray told a hurriedly called news conference here.

The amount has been de posited in the bank account of Harminder Sahib, the sanetum sanctorum the srhine, in the Punjab and Sind bank here, Ray said.

Following the operation Blue Star, which Sikhs all over the country considered as a sacrilege to the Sikhdom’s holiest shrine, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated the same year on October 31.

The governor informed the press)that a decision was taken at a high level meeting of officials at Chandigarh on Saturday, presided over by federal home minister Buta Singh. The meeting discussed in detail the recent SGPC letter requesting the money. Buta Singh had wanted this money to be returned on Saturday itself which was the 455th birth anniversary of the fourth Sikh Gurn and founder of this holy city and Golden Temple, Guru Ramdas, Ray said.

The Punjab governor told the press that one of the sealed boxes seized during operation Blue Star contained a sum of Rs 193.6 millions and 382 kg of coins. Another sealed box, seized during operation Black Thunder, contained a sum of about Rs. 53.7 mil lions.

The governor said the SGPC did not know the exact amount in government custody and, in its letter, had mentioned only Rs 700 thousand seized during operation Blue Star and Rs. 500 thousand during Black Thunder.

Some sealed packets seized during operation Blue Star, about which the SGPC was unaware, contained gold and silver ornaments, precious and semiprecious stones, a_ silver plaque and fixed deposit receipts worth Rs. 145 thousand.

The governor said that the SGPC had not applied for the return of these

Ray said the SGPC and government were working in full cooperation.

Asked for the reason for the delay of five years in handing over the amount taken in 1984, he said there were many hurdles and one of them was the dispute as to whom the amount should be handed back.

Article extracted from this publication >>  October 20, 1989