SIT arrests temple staff in connection with Sabarimala gold heist

Thiruvananthapuram: A senior official of the Travancore Devaswom Board was held on Thursday in connection with the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple gold heist.

Former administrative officer of Sabarimala, Murari Babu was arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by Kerala High Court. Babu, who was serving as deputy commissioner, was recently placed under suspension.

Babu had recorded the gold plated panels of the 'dwarapalaka' idols and door frames as copper in records while handing over those to Bengaluru-based Malayali Unnikrishnan Potti in 2019 and 2025 for gold plating. This was suspected to be done as part of the conspiracy to loot the gold coatings from the panel that were done with sponsorship or industrialist Vijay Mallya in 1998-99.

Babu earlier tried to justify that the gold coating made with Mallya's sponsorship worn out and hence it was recorded as copper.

With Babu's arrest, the probe is likely to expand to more officials of the TDB that manages the temple. The present board chairman P S Prasanth is also likely to come under scanner as it is suspected that the decision to hand over the plating to Unnikrishnan Potti for maintenance this year was taken as per Prasanth's instruction. The High Court on Tuesday instructed the police to bring all such matters under probe.

While the opposition Congress stepped up the demand for the resignation of devaswom minister V N Vasavan and the present devaswom board management, BJP is demanding a probe by central agencies citing that people from other states are also involved.