Sabarimala ex-temple officer, who helped main accused, arrested in gold theft case

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged disappearance of gold from the Sabarimala temple has arrested former executive officer Sudheesh Kumar, officials said on Saturday.

Kumar, who served as the executive officer of the hill shrine in 2019, was arrested after being questioned at the Crime Branch office in Thiruvananthapuram, sources said.

He has been accused of concealing that the Dwarapalaka (guardian deity) idols were gold-plated, instead recording them as copper sheets in the temple’s official documents.

Sources said Kumar had been associated with Sabarimala since the 1990s and was aware that the sanctum sanctorum, including the Dwarapalaka idols, had been gold-clad during 1998–99.

However, when the Dwarapalaka plates were handed over to the prime accused, Unnikrishnan Potty, for gold plating in 2019, Kumar allegedly documented them as copper plates, enabling the accused to later remove the existing gold plating, an officer said.

He is the third person to be arrested in the case, following Potty and former administrative officer B Murari Babu.

Kumar will be produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court later, officials said. Meanwhile, the SIT also interrogated Vasudevan, a close aide of Potty.

Investigators said Vasudevan had kept the additional gold-clad pedestal of the Dwarapalaka idols in his custody, which was later seized from the house of Potty’s relative in Thiruvananthapuram last month.

The SIT is investigating two related cases concerning the loss of gold from the Dwarapalaka idols and from the door frames of the Sreekovil (sanctum sanctorum), which were handed over to Potty for electroplating in 2019.