Sabarimala gold heist | SIT arrests former TDB administrative officer Sreekumar

Thiruvananthapuram: The SIT probing the Sabarimala gold loss cases on Wednesday arrested former TDB administrative officer S Sreekumar, sources said.

Sreekumar's arrest comes barely two weeks after the Kerala High Court rejected his anticipatory bail plea, saying that the allegations against him were made out.

Along with him, the anticipatory bail plea of former Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) secretary S Jayasree was also rejected.

The court had said that if the two accused were granted pre-arrest bail, the entire probe into the loss of gold from the shrine would collapse, and effective investigation "would become meaningless".

The court had also said that both Sreekumar and Jayasree were well aware that the plates were originally gold-clad, but signed the documents that referred to them as made of copper.

The special investigation team (SIT) appointed by the court is probing the cases involving gold lost from the gold-clad plates of the Dwarapalaka (guardian deity) idols and the Sreekovil (sanctum sanctorum) door frames.

Sreekumar is the seventh person to be arrested in connection with the two cases.

Prior to him, six others, including prime accused Unnikrishnan Potty and former TDB presidents N Vasu and A Padmakumar, have been arrested in the two cases.