Sabarimala gold row: SIT to file first progress report in Kerala High Court

Thiruvananthapuram: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the disappearance of gold from the Sabarimala temple is expected to submit its first progress report to the Kerala High Court soon, police sources said on Monday.

The division bench of Justices Raja Vijayaraghavan and KV Jayakumar will hear the case again on Tuesday, and the SIT is likely to file the report on the same day, according to sources.

Officials said the report will outline the current status of the probe, including the arrest of Bengaluru-based Unnikrishnan Potty, who sponsored the electroplating of gold-clad copper plates on the Dwarapalaka (guardian deity) idols and the Sreekovil (sanctum sanctorum) door frames in 2019. It will also include details of the investigation conducted in Chennai, where the electroplating work was carried out.

The High Court, when assigning the SIT to the case, directed the team to file a progress report within two weeks and set a six-week deadline to complete the investigation.

The SIT has registered two cases related to the missing gold from the Dwarapalaka idols and Sreekovil door frames. So far, 10 individuals, including Potty and officials of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB, have been named as accused. The team is expected to question other suspects in the coming days.

Meanwhile, Justice KT Sankaran (Retd.), appointed as amicus curiae to prepare an inventory of valuables, including gold at the hill shrine, is also expected to submit a preliminary report when the matter is taken up on Tuesday. Justice Sankaran visited Sabarimala last week and examined the strong rooms.

In a political development, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Sunny Joseph accused the state government of shielding the accused in the case.

“Even though the court ordered the SIT probe on October 6, the arrest was made only on October 16. When Congress workers are arrested within hours in other cases, those accused of stealing crores of rupees worth of gold from Sabarimala are freely roaming. The government is intentionally protecting them,” Joseph alleged.

PTI inputs