SIT arrests former TDB president and CPI(M) leader A. Padmakumar in the Sabarimala gold theft case

The Kerala High Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the misappropriation of gold-plated copper casings covering the sculptures and stone carvings at the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple arrested former Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president and Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leader A. Padmakumar on Thursday.

The arrest came after hours of questioning at the State Police Crime Branch Headquarters here. The SIT has named Mr. Padmakumar as the eighth accused in the case. The SIT subjected Mr. Padmakumar to a medical examination at General Hospital here and later produced him before a magistrate in Kollam.

The SIT had earlier arrested former TDB commissioner and later TDB president N. Vasu, former administrative officer Murari Babu, former executive officer D. Sudheesh Kumar, and ex-Thiruvabharanam Commissioner K.S. Baiju in the case.

Financial benefit

Officials said the SIT has reportedly indicted Mr. Padmakumar mainly for “bequeathing” an undue financial benefit to the prime accused, Unnikrishnan Potti, in 2019, by presiding over the “wilful miscategorisation” of the gilded panels as made of pure copper before entrusting them to the personal custody of the main suspect, ostensibly for restoring them to their original golden shine.

The SIT case was that the “false accounting” of the alloy’s metallic properties provided the suspects with a shield against potential legal jeopardy and opened the door for the pilferage.

Officials said they were unsure whether the SIT has assigned Mr. Padmakumar a direct inculpatory or conspiratorial role in the subsequent “smelting” of the panels for gold, their possible replication, and the chartering of the originals to wealthy devotees for private worship in return for sizeable backhanders.

However, they pointed out that the alleged culpability could fall within the scope of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

They said that in previous arrests, the SIT had indicted the suspects for theft, criminal misappropriation, breach of trust, and falsification of records, and that it might bring the same incriminating provisions to bear on Mr. Padmakumar.

Former TDB president A. Padmakumar being taken to General Hospital for a medical checkup following his arrest by SIT in Sabarimala temple gold theft case in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday.
| Photo Credit:
JAYAMOHAN A.

Flouting norms

In court filings, the SIT had stated that the TDB officials had brazenly infringed on the temple manual by entrusting the temple artefacts to a private individual with a “dubious” background. Moreover, it argued that the alleged failure to weigh the panels and test their metallurgical composition before handing them over to Mr. Potti revealed an intention to commit wrongdoing.

The case’s origin lies in the TDB’s “questiontable” decision in 2019 to accept Mr. Potti’s offer to restore, free of charge, the gold panels donated by liquor baron Vijay Mallya in 1998. Mr. Potti, who had worked as an aide to a junior priest at the temple from 2004 to 2008, had built a network of wealthy devotees, including celebrities, and later gained influence within the board and the temple’s priestly orthodoxy.

This year, the TDB’s internal audit wing told the High Court that the panels returned to the temple by Mr. Potti in 2019 had a diminished gold content and weighed considerably less than the originals.

Moreover, the unit quoted Mr. Potti’s letter to the TDB in 2019, seeking permission to use the “leftover gold” from the restoration process for charity as proof of criminality.

Officials said Mr. Padmakumar’s alleged proximity to Mr. Potti over the years, including the allocation of VIP rooms in Sabarimala, brought him under the SIT’s scanner.