Gangtok: A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) team has arrived in Sikkim with a view to make a "quantitative inventory" of the fabulous wealth of the Rumtek monastery, headquarters of the Karma Kagyu sect of Buddhism, on the directives of a local court.

The four-member team, led by the RBI's regional director in Kolkata Vinod Kumar Sharma along with two legal advisors and chief security officer, arrived in the city on April 2.

Sikkim District Judge (East/North) S W Lepcha on October 17 last year had appointed the RBI regional director as the court commissioner and ordered him to make an inventory of all Schedule A properties of the monastery in the presence of both the parties (plaintiff and defendants) and/or their counsels.

The court initially had given the RBI official three months time and allowed him to take the help of the police, if needed. The date of submission of reports was later extended to April 29 next.

The court order came on a civil suit filed on July 31, 1998 by the Karmapa Chariable Trust 1961, T S Gyaltsen, Shamar Rimpoche and Gyan Jyoti Kansakar against the state of Sikkim the secretary of the state's Ecclesiastical Department, Gyaltsab Rimpoche and J T Densapa.

However, hundreds of Buddhists monks and devotees have already strongly resented the court order saying the "inventorisation of the religious artifacts and especially the black hat (considered the crown of a karmapa) by an 'outsider' will be a sacrilege and hurt their sentiments".

PTI