<p>Thiruvananthapuram: N Vasu, a former president and commissioner of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), was held in connection with the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple gold heist on Tuesday. </p><p>Vasu's arrest assumed much significance as he was close to the CPM leadership and had also served in the personal staff of a CPM minister earlier. </p><p>He was appointed as TDB president by the first Pinarayi Vijayan government in 2019 as CPM nominee soon after his retirement as the commissioner. </p><p>Vasu was arraigned as third accused in the case pertaining to the siphoning off gold from the door frames of the Ayyappa temple. It was during his term as TDB commissioner in 2019 that the decision to hand over the door frames to Bengaluru-based Malayali Unnikrishnan Potti was taken. </p><p>The gold plated door frame was mentioned as copper in records allegedly with Vasu's intervention even as those were gold coated with industrialist Vijay Mallya's sponsorship in 1998-99.</p><p>Vasu was held by the Kerala High Court constituted special investigation team on Tuesday and was being taken to Pathanamthitta for production before court. </p><p>Three TDB officials including former administrative officer of the Sabarimala temple Murari Babu, former executive officer Sudheesh Kumar and former Thiruvabharanam commissioner K S Baiju were already held apart from Potti.</p>
<p>Thiruvananthapuram: N Vasu, a former president and commissioner of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), was held in connection with the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple gold heist on Tuesday. </p><p>Vasu's arrest assumed much significance as he was close to the CPM leadership and had also served in the personal staff of a CPM minister earlier. </p><p>He was appointed as TDB president by the first Pinarayi Vijayan government in 2019 as CPM nominee soon after his retirement as the commissioner. </p><p>Vasu was arraigned as third accused in the case pertaining to the siphoning off gold from the door frames of the Ayyappa temple. It was during his term as TDB commissioner in 2019 that the decision to hand over the door frames to Bengaluru-based Malayali Unnikrishnan Potti was taken. </p><p>The gold plated door frame was mentioned as copper in records allegedly with Vasu's intervention even as those were gold coated with industrialist Vijay Mallya's sponsorship in 1998-99.</p><p>Vasu was held by the Kerala High Court constituted special investigation team on Tuesday and was being taken to Pathanamthitta for production before court. </p><p>Three TDB officials including former administrative officer of the Sabarimala temple Murari Babu, former executive officer Sudheesh Kumar and former Thiruvabharanam commissioner K S Baiju were already held apart from Potti.</p>