Pathanamthitta: In the conspiracy to steal gold from the Sabarimala door panel, the word “brass” had originally been decided upon. The then Travancore Devaswom Board president, A Padmakumar, who has been arrested, struck out the word brass in his own handwriting and replaced it with “copper”. It is this alteration that has now implicated him. The course of investigation may extend towards two other board members of that time.

In 2019, the report submitted to the Devaswom Board by Commissioner Vasu and his team had the word brass. When it came before the board for consideration, President A Padmakumar reportedly pointed out the risk of using the word brass. Murari Babu, Sudheesh Kumar, Vasu and others had used that term because brass has a colour similar to gold.

However, there was a concern that stating Sabarimala sanctum is plated with brass might appear contradictory. Padmakumar therefore decided to strike out the term in the order forwarded by Vasu and replaced it with copper, since the base metal of the roofing sheets is copper.

His argument was that they could then claim it was copper and that the gold plating had faded. Other board members—K T Sankardas and Palavila Vijayakumar—also agreed. Padmakumar’s remand report mentions this brass episode. Instead of specifying “gold-plated copper sheets”, Padmakumar wrote only “copper” in his own handwriting, according to the report.

Even though they knew this was illegal, the other two members did not oppose passing it. They also stood by the decision. It is likely that they too may be arrested soon.

Padmakumar’s defence falls apart

Padmakumar’s claim that everything followed what the officials provided has also collapsed. His long-standing argument was that he merely approved what Vasu and the other officials had submitted without alteration.

Brass and copper

Copper becomes brass when zinc is added. Brass has a colour similar to gold. Typically, brass contains 60% copper and 40% zinc. When copper is mixed with tin, bronze is formed.