Gold pedestal missing from Sabarimala recovered from sponsor's relative's home

Thiruvananthapuram: The mysteries over the suspected irregularities in the gold plating of 'Dwarapalaka' idols at Sabarimala Ayyappa temple deepens further with portions of the gold plated cover of the 'peedaom' (pedestal) of the idols recovered from the house of Bengaluru-based Malayali sponsor's relative in Thiruvananthapuram.

The vigilance wing of the Travancore Devaswom Board, which was recently asked by the Kerala High Court to submit a report of the irregularities in the gold plating, recovered the gold plated 'peedom' from a house at Venjaramoodu on the suburbs of Thiruvananthapuram.

It is said to be the house of a close relative of Unnikrishnan Potti, the Bengaluru-based Malayali who sponsored the gold plating of the idols in 2019.

The suspected irregularities came to light recently after the gold plating cover was taken to Chennai for carrying out repair works allegedly by flouting the procedures. The HC subsequently found that the weight of the gold plated copper cover came down by 4.541 kilogram after it was taken to Chennai for gold plating in 2019.

In the meantime, Unnikrishnan Potti said that even as one of the gold plated covering of the 'peedam' he initially gave did not fit the idol owing to size differences he did not take it back as it was given as offering. He also added that now it was not known where the 'peedom' is.

With the TDB vigilance team now recovering the 'peedom' from one of his (sponsor's) relative's house, the mystery had deepened. The vigilance wing will be submitting a report to the HC on Monday.

There were unconfirmed reports that a worker of Potti was keeping the 'peedom' at his house and it was shifted to Potti's relative's house after the recent row.

While the Congress and the BJP are using the row over the irregularities in the famed temple's gold coverings to politically attack the ruling CPM, TDB president P S Prasanth reiterated that there were no irregularities and the gold plating were sent for repair by ensuring security