Thiruvananthapuram: The ruling CPM has been hit hard by the arrest of the former president of the Travancore Devaswom Board, A Padmakumar, in connection with the Sabarimala gold theft case. With local government elections approaching, the Sabarimala gold row is a major topic of discussion, and the arrest of a prominent CPM leader is expected to cause a setback for the Left Front in Pathanamthitta, where Sabarimala is located. The main issue in the case is that a senior CPM leader in Pathanamthitta has been arrested. Political observers believe that the fact that a person with party support has been named as an accused in this case is likely to put the CPM on the defensive.

Padmakumar became the Devaswom Board President in 2019.

Padmakumar, a CPM leader with 54 years of political experience, has been a member of the committee since the formation of the CPM's Pathanamthitta district committee in 1983. Padmakumar became the party's area secretary at the age of 25. He was first elected to the assembly in 1991 from the Konni constituency at the age of 30, defeating NDP candidate Chandrasekharan Nair by 916 votes.

He lost to Congress's Adoor Prakash in Konni in 1996. After this, he moved to the Aranmula constituency but lost to Maleth Sarala Devi. Padmakumar, who rose to become an important political leader of the CPM in Pathanamthitta at a young age, was also a staunch supporter of Pinarayi Vijayan in the top party veterans’ VS Achuthanandan-Pinarayi Vijayan group fight. Although he was demoted to the branch committee as part of party procedures, he later gradually returned to the district committee.

When Thomas Isaac was a candidate during the Lok Sabha polls, the party issued a warning to Padmakumar for engaging in a fist fight with another district committee member.

Padmakumar is a leader who has grown through the CPM at various stages, both as an obedient cadre and a rebel. He has once again placed the CPM in a crisis.

The SIT in the Sabarimala gold row case has found that other accused, including Unnikrishnan Potti, acted on Padmakumar's instructions. Crucially, statements of the other accused arrested in the case were also against Padmakumar.

Visuals of Padmakumar leaning on the Dwarpalaka sculptures in the temple in May 2019 suggested that the Dwarpalaka shields were covered in pure gold. However, an attempt was later made to claim they were copper. The shields handed over were confirmed to be covered in pure gold in May, but when given to Potti in July, it was stated that they were made of copper. The investigation team points to this as the main reason for the gold theft.

The first arrest in the case was that of Unnikrishnan Potti. Later, former administrative officer of the Devaswom Board Murari Babu, former executive officer D Sudheesh Kumar, and former Devaswom Commissioner and Board President N Vasu were arrested. When N Vasu was arrested, there were indications that Padmakumar would be taken into custody.