Sabarimala gold smuggling case: Former Devaswom board president and CPM leader A Padmakumar held

Thiruvananthapuram: Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) former president and former CPM MLA A Padmakumar was reportedly held in connection with the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple gold heist.

According to sources, Padmakumar was summoned by the special investigation team (SIT) for quizzing on Thursday and was subsequently arrested. He was a district secretariat member of the CPM in Pathanamthitta.

Earlier another former president and commissioner of the TDB N Vasu was also held by the SIT apart from former administrative officer of the Sabarimala temple Murari Babu, former executive officer Sudheesh Kumar, former Thiruvabharanam commissioner K S Baiju and Bengaluru-based Malayali Unnikrishnan Potti.

Gold coating

Padmakumar and Vasu served as TDP president while the decision to allow Potti to carry out gold coating of the door frames and 'Dwarapalaka' idols of the Ayyappa temple was taken by mentioning those as copper, despite the fact that gold coating of all those were done in 1998-99 with the sponsorship of industrialist Vijay Mallya.

The involvement of Padmakumar and Vasu in the Sabarimala gold heist is putting the ruling CPM in Kerala in a tight spot owing to the CPM connections of the two. Vasu earlier served in the personal staff of a CPM minister too.

SIT involvement

The preliminary suspicion of the SIT is that around two kilograms of gold used for covering of the two 'Dwarapalaka' idols and door frames with Mallya's sponsorship were siphoned off by Potti with the connivance of the then officials of the TDB that manages the Ayyappa temple.

The SIT is also carrying out scientific examination of the gold platings done with the sponsorship of Potti to determine the quality and quality of the gold used.

Congress and BJP leaders reacted that the involvement of the ruling CPM in the Sabarimala gold heist was becoming more evident.