The Kerala High Court –appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the Sabarimala temple gold heist , on Saturday arrested former executive officer Sudheesh Kumar , who served at the temple in 2019, for his alleged involvement in the conspiracy.
This is the third arrest in the case.
The SIT has found that Kumar Sudheesh played a major role in handing over the temple’s panels to Unnikrishnan Potty, during which the original gold-plated panels were misrepresented as copper plates.
The investigation found that Sudheesh had written a recommendation letter referring to the panels as copper, despite being aware that they were gold-plated.
Meanwhile, Murari Babu, former Devaswom Administrative Officer, who was in SIT custody in connection with the same case, was remanded till November 13 by the Ranni First Class Judicial Magistrate Court.
He was produced in court after the expiry of his custody period and has been shifted to the Thiruvananthapuram Special Sub Jail.
The SIT has on Friday seized extensive records and documents related to the original gold cladding and subsequent repair work at the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple as part of its ongoing investigation into the case
The records and documents were seized from the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) office in Thiruvananthapuram
The seized documents, reportedly spanning around 420 pages, pertain to the original gold plating work conducted in 1999, which was sponsored by industrialist Vijay Mallya.
The SIT is scrutinizing these records, which were held in the office of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) in Thiruvananthapuram, to determine the exact amount of gold used and to verify procedural compliance.
It is expected that the seized documents will help the SIT ascertain the actual quantity of gold involved and pinpoint the extent of the alleged misappropriation.