Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], December 17 : The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Wednesday arrested Sreekumar, a former Administrative Officer (AO) of the Travancore Devaswom Board, in connection with the Sabarimala gold theft case, Kerala police said on Wednesday.
According to officials, Sreekumar was the Administrative Officer in 2019 when the gold plating from the Dwarapalaka sculptures at the Sabarimala temple was removed. He was arrested today after being summoned to the Crime Branch office for questioning as part of the ongoing probe.
Earlier on Sunday, Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala alleged large-scale irregularities in the Sabarimala sanctum gold theft case, claiming that 30.5 kg of gold was siphoned from the revered hill shrine and replaced with copper plated with gold. Terming the episode a 'grave betrayal of faith', Chennithala said he had shared crucial information with the Special Investigation Team (SIT), gathered from a businessman based abroad.
"Today I met the SIT and gave the information I gathered from a businessman staying abroad. Sabarimala is a religious site considered secular and visited by over five crore devotees every year. Unfortunately, some unscrupulous elements took away 30.5 kg of gold from there and replaced copper with gold plating. I wanted to know where the gold is," Chennithala told reporters.
He further alleged that antiques worth Rs 500-1,000 crores were smuggled out and said the inputs had been formally conveyed to investigators.
The Congress leader's remarks come amid intensified probes into the long-running controversy surrounding the gold plating of the Sabarimala temple sanctum.
Earlier, on November 26, the SIT took into custody A. Padmakumar, former Sabarimala Executive Committee president and CPI(M) Pathanamthitta district committee member, following court approval. Former Thiruvabharanam temple commissioner K.S. Baiju was arrested on November 7, while Unnikrishnan Potti, named as the prime accused, was taken into custody on October 17.
The Sabarimala gold controversy involves allegations of irregularities regarding the gold plating work at the Sabarimala temple. This situation arose from a donation of 30.3 kilograms of gold and 1,900 kilograms of copper by industrialist Vijay Mallya in 1998, intended for the cladding of the sanctum sanctorum and the wooden carvings of the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala.