Sabarimala Gold: SIT Files First Report In Kerala HC In Sealed Cover
The High Court, while assigning the case to the SIT, had directed the team to file a progress report within two weeks and set a six-week deadline to complete the investigation. The SIT was constituted after a court-initiated plea revealed the loss of the gold
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Special Investigation team (SIT) investigating the Sabarimala gold scam submitted a preliminary report to the Kerala High Court on Tuesday. The SIT report includes statements from the prime accused, Unnikrishnan Potty, implicating members and officials of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB).
The High Court directed the SIT to investigate in detail the possibility of criminal conspiracy in the gold theft. After reviewing the preliminary investigation report, the court noted that significant damage had been observed on the Dwarapalakas with visible marks on their lower portions as early as 2024.
The Devaswom Commissioner and Devaswom Smith inspected the idols and discovered that the gold plating had disappeared in several areas, exposing the underlying nickel coating. The court also noted that parts of the pedestals had lost their plating. Devaswom Smith suggested that fresh gold plating, along with an extra lacquer coating, was necessary.
Expressing serious doubts about whether the Dwarapalaka idols returned were the same as those entrusted in 2019, the court stated that every Devaswom official, including those in the highest hierarchy, bears responsibility for failing to weigh the idols at the time of refixation and for not recording the same in the Mahazar.
The High Court directed the SIT not to limit its probe to the Dwarapalakas and side frames alone, but to uncover the larger conspiracy and identify the TDB officials who may have colluded to conceal the misappropriation of gold from the gold-clad plates.
Meanwhile, Ananthasubrahmanyam, a close acquaintance of Unnikrishnan Potty, was questioned at the Crime Branch headquarters on Monday. He was released after interrogation later that night. The SIT is investigating alleged irregularities related to the reduction in the weight of gold-clad copper coverings of the Dwarapalaka idols at the Sabarimala temple. The report was submitted in a sealed cover by the SIT chief, S Sasidharan. The case was heard in camera by a Division Bench comprising Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan V and K V Jayakumar.
It may be recalled that the remand report submitted by the SIT in Judicial First Class Magistrate Court - 1, Ranni, stated that Potty manipulated Mahazar records to show gold-clad panels as copper and had them handed over to others in 2019 while he was absent. The documents had the signatures of his friends Ananthasubrahmanyam and Ramesh.
Potty, who worked as an assistant priest at Sabarimala between 2004 and 2008, misappropriated gold under the guise of cladding the copper panels of the Dwarapalaka idols, despite being aware that the work had already been completed in 1998. The report states that Potty procured about two kilograms of gold through "illicit means, breach of trust and cheating" for monetary gain.
The SIT probe has also placed Devaswom Board officials under scrutiny. It was found that the TDB officials who signed the Mahazar to transport the panels to Chennai for gold plating in 2019 were aware that the idols had already been gold-plated earlier.
Potty was arrested on Thursday by SIT from his residence in Pulimath in Thiruvananthapuram district.
