THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The investigation into the sensational Sabarimala gold theft has taken a significant turn as the Kerala Crime Branch officially registered a case at its headquarters. A total of ten individuals, including sponsor Unnikrishnan Potti, his aides, and several Devaswom officials, have been named as accused in the First Information Report (FIR).
The case has been handed over to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) which will be headed by Crime Branch chief ADGP H. Venkitesh. The decision to register the case at the Crime Branch headquarters was made due to the statewide jurisdiction required for the investigation.
The accused face serious charges, including theft, criminal breach of trust, forgery, and criminal conspiracy. Sources indicate that arrests and further legal actions are imminent as the investigation gathers pace.
Mystery Deepens as Over 1.5 kg of Gold Suspected Missing
A major challenge for the SIT will be to ascertain the actual quantity of the missing gold, with evidence suggesting the amount could be far greater than initially reported.
According to the final report by the Devaswom vigilance wing, approximately 989 grams (124 sovereigns) of gold were reported missing from the Sabarimala temple. However, this calculation was based solely on the statement provided by the CEO of ‘Smart Creations,’ the Chennai-based firm that undertook the gold plating work.
Discrepancies in the records point to a much larger theft. In 1998, the UB Group had reportedly provided around 1.5 kilograms of gold to plate the dwarapalaka (guardian deity) sculptures. However, when the gold was melted down in Chennai in 2019, Smart Creations claimed to have recovered only 577 grams from these sculptures, leaving nearly one kilogram of gold unaccounted for.
Furthermore, the firm stated that 409 grams of gold were retrieved after melting the seven gold plates from the side walls of the sanctum sanctorum. But there are no precise records of how much gold was originally used to cover these plates in 1998.
Based on these figures, investigators suspect that Unnikrishnan Potti may have been in possession of more than 1.5 kilograms of gold. The glaring contradiction between this and the vigilance report, which mentions less than half a kilogram, highlights the complexities of the case. The investigation team will now focus on unraveling these inconsistencies and tracing the entire quantity of the missing temple gold.
