Coming down heavily on the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), the Kerala High Court on Monday asked what role the board played, if all major responsibilities were entrusted to businessman Unnikrishnan Potti, prime accused in the alleged misappropriation of gold from the Sabarimala temple.
A single Bench of Justice A. Badharudeen was hearing arguments by the prosecution that the gold plating of, among others, the door frames and that of the Dwarapalaka idols had been entrusted to him. The court wondered why such important works were entrusted to a single individual.
The court was hearing bail pleas of former TDB president A. Padmakumar, Bellary-based gold merchant Govardhan, and former executive officer of Sabarimala Murari Babu arraigned as accused in the case.
Questioning the TDB role, the court asked, “Then what is the duty of the Devaswom Board? It is as good as having no Devaswom Board. That would be better.”
The prosecution submitted that Mr. Padmakumar, while serving as president of the board, committed grave misconduct by deliberately making false entries in official correspondence that ultimately led to the misappropriation of gold, causing irreparable financial loss and damage to the board’s reputation.
The SIT report reiterated that Mr. Padmakumar, despite knowing that the door frames (that were taken for gold plating) were gold-clad, made corrections in his own handwriting (to portray them as copper clad).
Mr. Padmakumar contended that the corrections were not made deliberately and that the only allegation against him pertained to violation of the Devaswom manual, which did not constitute a penal offence.
To this, the court said a person intending to commit a crime would do it intelligently, and asked why the State could not enact a law titled the Kerala State Devaswom Properties Protection and Preservation Act. If such a law existed, acts of dereliction of duty would come under its ambit.
Mr. Govardhan said he “had been in prison for 25 days although he spent ₹1.40 crore” (from his own pocket) for different works in Sabarimala.
The SIT probing the case opposed the bail pleas, stating that their continuous custody was needed since they had “a major role to play” in the alleged misappropriation of gold from the temple. After hearing the arguments of all parties, the court reserved its order on the bail pleas of the three persons.
The High Court also flayed the SIT for not arresting K.P. Sankara Das, an accused in the case pertaining to the alleged misappropriation of gold from the Sabarimala temple. “A person has been admitted to a hospital ever since he was arraigned as an accused in the case. His son is a Superintendent of Police. What is happening in this State? I completely disagree with the investigating officer,” the court said.
Published – January 13, 2026 05:46 am IST