Former Sabarimala temple officer remanded in gold missing case

Pathanamthitta (Kerala), Oct 31 (PTI) A court in Ranni on Friday remanded former Sabarimala temple administrative officer B Murari Babu to judicial custody in connection with the case related to missing gold from the hill shrine, officials said.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) produced the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) officer before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in the afternoon.

Earlier, the court had granted the SIT his custody for four days for interrogation. When asked by the court whether he had any complaint, Babu said he did not.

He was later remanded to judicial custody and shifted to the Thiruvananthapuram Special Jail, an official said.

Meanwhile, the SIT interrogated former Sabarimala Executive Officer D Sudheesh Kumar at the Crime Branch office in Thiruvananthapuram.

Sources said Kumar, who is also an accused in the case, appeared for questioning following a notice issued to him.

He is accused of concealing the fact that the Dwarapalaka (guardian deity) idols and door frames were gold-plated and instead listing them as copper sheets in official records.

Officials said other TDB officers named in the case will be questioned in the coming days.

Separately, the TDB has traced several key documents related to the gold cladding work carried out at the sreekovil (sanctum sanctorum) in 1998–1999.

The documents reportedly detail the work undertaken and the quantity of gold used for the process.

A TDB official said the documents have been handed over to the SIT.

The SIT, constituted as per the Kerala High Court’s direction, is probing two cases — one related to the missing gold from the gold-clad copper plates of the Dwarapalaka idols and the other from the door frames of the sreekovil.

The prime accused, Unnikrishnan Potty, who had sponsored the electroplating of the Dwarapalaka idol plates in 2019, was earlier arrested in connection with the case. PTI TBA SSK TBA SSK KH