ED raids premises of Sabarimala gold heist accused; prime suspect Potti gets bail

Thiruvananthapuram: The Enforcement directorate on Tuesday conducted raids at different locations in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in connection with the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple  gold heist.

The operation code named 'Golden shadow' was carried out simultaneously at the residences and offices of those arraigned in the gold heist case. As many as 21 locations were being raided by the ED.

The raids that began by around 7.30 am were continuing till late in the evening at many places. 

In Kerala the raids were being carried out at the headquarters of Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) that manages the temple as well as the residences of the key accused Bengaluru-based Malayali Unnikrishnan Potti, Devaswom Board senior official Murari Babu and TDB former presidents A Padmakumar, who is also a CPM leader and former MLA, and N Vasu.

In Karnataka raids were reportedly held at the residences of Potti as well as the residence and shop of Govardhan who runs Roddam Jewels at Ballari. Chennai-based Smart Creations, where the gold extraction and plating were reportedly done, was also being raided.

ED officials were yet to reveal the findings of the raids.

The ED had registered an enforcement case information report last week in which all the accused were arraigned. 

Even as one of the tantris (traditional chief priests) of the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple Kandararu Rajeevaru, who was also arrested by the special investigation, was also made accused by the ED, there were no reports of the  central agency carrying out raids at his residence.

Kerala devaswom minister V N Vasavan said that the central agency's moves need to be seen with doubts as there seems to be some sorts of discrimination in their actions.

Potti gets bail

The key accused Unnikrishnan Potti received bail in one of the two cases in which he was arraigned. 

The vigilance court in Kollam granted bail in the case pertaining to the irregularities in the gold plating of 'Dwarapalaka' sculptors at the temple. He received bail as the charge sheet was not filed even 90 days after the arrest.

Since he did not get bail in the case pertaining to irregularities in the gold plating of the sanctum sanctorum  door frame, he would not be released.

The SIT on Tuesday carried out an inspection at the temple strong room to verify whether any parts of the old flag post of the temple went missing.

The Kerala high court on Monday expressed serious apprehensions over the deep rooted heist from the temple. A scientific analysis report of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre on the gold covering over the copper plates had found evidence for the looting of the high quality gold and copper used for the gold covering of the temple with the sponsorship of industrialist Vijay Mallya in 1998.