Sabarimala gold heist case | UDF conduct in House deplorable and unfortunate: Kerala CM Vijayan

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday termed as "deplorable" and "unfortunate" the Congress-led UDF protest in the assembly on the Sabarimala gold loss issue.

Vijayan said that a division bench of the Kerala High Court, which was monitoring the probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the cases related to alleged misappropriation of gold from the Lord Ayyappa shrine, has praised the same.

He said it was a single judge bench which criticised the SIT probe while hearing bail pleas and the same cannot be considered as disapproval towards the investigation.

He also claimed that the division bench made observations about the criticisms against the SIT probe and the same were a "slap on the face" of the opposition.

The CM said in the assembly that it was "unfortunate" that the opposition MLAs initially tried and then later climbed onto the Speaker's dais and also attacked the watch-and-ward staff of the House.

"What happened has never before occurred in the House. It was a deliberate attempt by the opposition to create problems in the assembly after their protests outside were not heeded by the people or the media," he claimed.

Vijayan said that the opposition leader, V D Satheesan, has justified the violent acts of the UDF MLAs.

"Such conduct is deplorable," he contended.

The Congress-led UDF boycotted the House proceedings alleging interference by the CM's office in the Sabarimala gold loss cases probe.

The opposition claimed that the arrested accused were being protected by the government and conditions were being created for them to obtain statutory bail by pressurising the SIT to delay filing of its charge sheet.

An accused is granted statutory bail if the investigating agency fails to file a charge sheet within a stipulated time after the arrest, which in the Sabarimala gold loss cases is 90 days.

The cases relate to the alleged loss of gold from the Dwarapalaka (guardian deity) idol plates and from the gold cladding on the door frames of the Sreekovil (sanctum sanctorum).

The SIT has made 12 arrests in the matter till date.

Of the arrested accused, three are out on statutory bail and the main accused Unnikrishan Potty is also likely to come out soon once he gets the same relief in both the cases.

Potty has got statutory bail in only one of the two cases.