Sabarimala Temple Gold Theft Case Takes A New Turn As SIT Reveals Shocking New Details, Full Controversy Explained

The Special Investigation Team looking into the Sabarimala gold theft told the Kollam Vigilance Court on Thursday that even more gold is missing from temple artefacts.

More gold missing from more artefacts in Sabarimala temple

In their report, the SIT said gold is gone from the images of Siva and Vyali Roopam found in the door frames of the sanctum sanctorum.

They haven’t managed to get back all the stolen gold yet. So far, they’ve only recovered 584 grams, less than what was taken.

Out of that, 110 grams came from Smart Creations in Chennai, and 474 grams from Roddam Jewellery in Ballari. The Chennai company kept some of the gold as payment for extraction and electroplating work. The rest ended up at Roddam Jewellery.

Govardhan owns Roddam. Right now, he’s in judicial custody. Investigators sent the gold they took from both shops to VSSC for testing.

They need those results before they can say for sure if this gold came from the sheets stolen from the temple. If the gold doesn’t match, it’ll confirm doubts that some of it landed in the hands of antique traffickers.

Sabarimala temple: Gold theft case explained

The Kerala high court says there’s clear evidence someone stripped gold off some of the idols.

Right now, the Kerala High Court has a special investigation team on the case. Police jumped in too. They’re looking into how the gold vanished. So far, they’ve arrested three people, including a former assistant temple priest.

The fuss centres on two Dwarapalaka idols, the door guards just outside where the main deity sits. The court picked up the case in September after the Sabarimala Special Commissioner reported that the gold cladding on these idols was missing in lots of spots.

Who are the suspects?

Since then, the two judges, Raja Vijayaraghavan V and KV Jayakumar, say they’ve checked everything: temple records, before-and-after photos, and a stack of other documents from the investigation team. They call it “this extraordinary case involving the pilferage of Lord Ayyappa’s sacred valuables.”

They admitted that when they first asked temple officials for all the files about the idols’ repairs, they had no idea they’d be stirring up such a mess.

The paperwork shows that back in 1998-99, the temple used 30.291kg of gold donated by now-disgraced billionaire Vijay Mallya to clad the idols and parts of the temple, including pillars, arches, and panels telling stories of Lord Ayyappa.

The court says that in July 2019, the Travancore Devaswom Board, which runs the temple, let Unnikrishnan Potty, the main suspect and a former assistant priest, take out the idols for new gold-cladding. That’s when things started to unravel.

Two months later, when they brought the idols back, nobody bothered to weigh them. Still, the court says later investigations made it clear they were a lot lighter.

The SIT dug deeper and found gold missing not just from the idols, but from pedestals and door frames too. According to the court, about 4.54 kg of gold has vanished since 2019.

The judges didn’t mince words. They called it “a heist and plundering of gold.”

At this temple, women of menstruating age aren’t allowed in, so only young girls or older women can visit the shrine. What really stood out to the court was that Mr Potty was allowed to take the idols out in the first place. Usually, repairs happen inside the temple. Even more odd, when the temple board handed over the items, they listed gold-covered pieces as just “copper plates.”

The judges had harsh words for the temple board, slamming them for letting Mr Potty keep around 474.9 grams of gold after repairs, which he never should’ve had in the first place.

Then there’s the email. Mr Potty wrote to the board, asking if he could use the “surplus gold” for the “marriage of a girl known or related to him.” The court called this “deeply disturbing,” and said it just revealed how bad things really were.

As for the suspects, they all deny it. Mr Potty has been arrested and sent to judicial custody.

Police have arrested two board officials in the last few days. The board’s president, PS Prasanth, is also under investigation.

The SIT has six weeks to wrap up the investigation. The court says it wants to “identify and bring to book every person culpable in the matter… no matter their position, influence, or status.”

Political row amid the gold theft

Opposition lawmakers took their protest outside the state assembly, angry over the gold theft scandal. The whole thing’s turned into a political storm, with opposition parties out on the streets, calling out Kerala’s Communist government.

“About 5 kilos of gold are gone,” said VD Satheesan, the Congress leader of the opposition in the assembly, speaking to the BBC. “The court’s shocked. They’ve even said that the officials involved are just as responsible maybe even more.”

Satheesan and other opposition leaders want VN Vasavan, the Minister for Temple Affairs, to step down. They say he failed to protect the temple’s treasures and should take the blame.

But Vasavan isn’t backing down. He’s denied the accusations and refuses to quit. “We’re cooperating fully with the police investigation, and the court’s watching everything closely,” he told the BBC.

“Let everyone see the records going back to 1998, and what’s happening now. We’ve got nothing to hide.”

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