As the unprecedented rains turned Kedarnath into a ghost town with bodies strewn all over, a ‘gold rush’ in the holy town is sending shivers down the spine.



Cash and gold offerings at the shrine are missing and so is personal jewellery,Shop the best selection of men's stainless steel ring. including anklets and gold bangles, of several of the deceased. In some cases, fingers have been chopped off to remove rings. The local police have arrested some persons who tried to flee with the cash.



All agencies working on the ground have confirmed the shameless ‘gold rush’. Pilots of the Army Aviation wing and the Indian Air Force have reported people refusing evacuation to make a ‘quick buck’ off the dead. Special Forces of the Indian Army, which have been looking for survivors, have tried to warn the human scavengers, but to no avail.



DIG Amit Prasad of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), which has also sent its rescue teams, confirmed tell-tale signs of scavengers. “Donation boxes at Kedarnath have been broken into and emptied. We have informed the local police,” he said.



The local police’s Division Range DIG AK Sinha confirmed that a man in the robes of a sadhu was nabbed with Rs 87 lakh belonging to the State Bank of India’s branch at Kedarnath. Another man was caught with Rs 83 lakh while others have been caught with smaller sums and gold ornaments. The temple, managed by the Sri Badrinath-Kedranath Temple Committee, opens in April-May for summer depending upon an auspicious time carefully calculated by the religious men. It is during this period that the idol of Lord Shiva is installed in the shrine. In winter, it is taken down and installed at Ukhimath. This year, the Kedarnath shrine opened on May 14 and Badrinath on May 16. The shrine usually remains open till November, but the number of devotees decreases in the monsoon.



Collections run into crores each year and nearly Rs 9-Rs 10 crore is declared each year. Apart from cash, devotees offer gold as well. As this was the peak season owing to summer vacations, donations to the shrine were bound to be high. The cast iron collection boxes are usually emptied under tight security and the contents deposited in the bank. Divisional Commissioner, Garhwal Division, Subhardhan said, “Thieves have been making attempts. The local district magistrate is a member of the temple committee, but he does not enjoy administrative control over it.”



As estimated, 10,000 pilgrims were at Kedarnath when catastrophe struck. Lakshman Singh, an ITBP assistant sub-inspector and eyewitness, said, “There were 10,000-12,000 persons at the shrine when the catastrophe struck on June 16. With the administration is yet to arrive at a death toll, it is anybody’s guess what thieves have fled with in terms of gold jewellery.”



The smallcap index is down 0.68% at 5,678 on BSE at 11.05 hours. The index hit 5,660 points, its lowest level since January 2012. Most the stocks from the index are trading lower by 3-13%. On the other hand, the BSE Mid-cap index has declined 1.36% or 5,955 as against 0.9% fall in the benchmark indices.



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About 63 stocks from smallcap index, including VIP Industries, Dhanlaxmi Bank, SRF, STC India, Balrampur Chini Mills and Dishman Pharmaceuticals are trading at their 52-week lows.



The companies engaged in gems and jewellery business are under pressure on the bourses and trading lower by up to 20% on concerns that the Reserve Bank of India's and government initiative to curb gold imports may impact the sectors' growth.



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Shares of Jaypee Group all three listed companies such as Jaiprakash Associates, Jaiprakash Power Ventures and Jaypee Infratech are trading at their 52-week lows on reports that Jaypee Cement has shelved the plan to sell its Gujarat unit as it did not get the “right” price.

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