The Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the Sabarimala temple gold heist case, on Monday arrested former Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) member N Vijayakumar.
Vijayakumar was a member of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), which was headed by A Padmakumar in 2019, when the gold loot had taken place in the Sabarimala shrine.
Following the criticism from the Kerala High Court last week, the SIT has asked Vijayakumar and Shankardas to appear before the investigation team for questioning in the case. But neither of them appeared before the SIT. Shankardas has explained that he couldn’t attend as he was in the hospital due to health issues.
Following this, Vijayakumar was taken into custody by the SIT from his house on Monday morning, and his arrest was recorded. Vijayakumar was a CPM nominee in the TDB.
Meanwhile, Vijayakumar and Shankardas had approached the Kollam Vigilance court seeking anticipatory bail. However, their plea has not been considered by the court yet.
The Kerala High Court on December 20 flagged apparent stagnation in the probe into the Sabarimala gold scam and raised doubts over the selective arraignment of Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) members by the SIT.
The court, which expressed concern over the slow pace of the probe, also flayed the SIT for not proceeding against N Vijayakumar and K P Sankardas, who were members of the TDB in 2019. The SIT’s action comes in this context.