The High Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Tuesday (December 30, 2025) questioned a Dindigal-based businessperson, who allegedly goes by several aliases, including D. Mani, in connection with the criminal misappropriation of gold-plated artefacts from the Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple.
Officials said the SIT had interviewed Mr. Mani in his office last week, based on a statement from a Non-Resident Keralite businessperson that sought to link the Tamil Nadu resident to the illegal trade in religious artefacts, including those of supposed antique value.
Officials said Mr. Mani and an acquaintance, who identified himself as Balamurugan, reported to the Crime Branch office in Eanchakkal, Thiruvananthapuram, for questioning.
The SIT is yet to name Mr. Mani as an accused in the case. Mr. Mani has protested his innocence to journalists from Kerala who visited him in Dindigul last week.
However, officials said the expat businessperson’s deposition, given at the behest of former Kerala Home Minister and senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala, has opened a new line of enquiry, requiring more time and possibly additional investigators.
They said the Crime Branch will likely approach the Kerala High Court to seek permission to expand the SIT and extend the deadline for filing the final report in the case.
Mr. Mani had emerged as the latest focus of the investigation after the expat alleged that the former had contacted wealthy collectors claiming to have idols and other high-value religious artefacts for sale.
Officials said the SIT was verifying Mr. Mani’s antecedents, including any links to Unnikrishnan Potti, the prime accused in the case. Moreover, the SIT has reportedly interviewed several acquaintances of Mr. Mani in Tamil Nadu, possibly to profile him based on their character statements.
Rice puller racket
Officials said the SIT suspects its investigation might meander into interstate rackets that palm off ordinary everyday objects, including metal pots and idols, as rare treasures with magical properties to unsophisticated, overeager, wealthy collectors for significant sums of money.
They noted that the Tamil Nadu and the Kerala Police had registered several cases involving the use of pseudoscience to mislead buyers into believing that the vessels they hoped to sell were made of rare alloys with supernatural properties.
An official said the “rice-puller” scam, which targeted impressionable wealthy collectors in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, involved the clever use of hidden magnets and rice grains mixed with minute iron shavings to stage fake “magical” demonstrations to persuade prospective buyers.
An investigator said the SIT was reluctant to pursue such lines of investigation without hard evidence linking such rackets to the Sabarimala gold theft.
Published – December 30, 2025 06:35 pm IST
