Two more arrests in Sabarimala gold theft case, Kerala HC slams SIT over probe lapses

Kochi/Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 19 The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Sabarimala gold theft case on Friday recorded two more crucial arrests even as the Kerala High Court came down heavily on the investigation, flagging serious lapses and warning that "big guns" should not be spared.

Smart Creations CEO Pankaj Bhandari and Bellary-based jeweller Govardhanan, who allegedly purchased the gold siphoned off from the Dwarapalaka sculptures at Sabarimala, were taken into custody.

With this, the total arrests in the case have reached nine.

The arrests follow sustained criticism from the High Court over delays and selective investigation in the high-profile case.

According to the SIT, gold plates removed from the Dwarapalaka sculptures at Sabarimala were smuggled to Chennai and taken to Smart Creations, where the gold was separated from the sculptures.

The extracted gold was then sold to Govardhanan through an intermediary identified as Kalpesh.

During evidence collection earlier in Bellary, the SIT had recovered over 800 grams of gold from Govardhanan’s jewellery shop.

The tantri, in his statement, also reportedly referred to Govardhanan’s role and said he had been introduced to him by the prime accused, Unnikrishnan Potti.

Investigators said Smart Creations initially showed complete non-cooperation.

Company officials repeatedly claimed that records had been destroyed in a factory fire and provided only an Excel sheet stating that the gold plates had arrived on August 29.

Registers sought by investigators were said to have been lost in the fire, strengthening suspicions of deliberate concealment.

Bhandari had initially told investigators and the court that his firm undertook gold plating only on pure metal sheets and not on gold-plated items — a claim later contradicted during the probe.

He was summoned to Thiruvananthapuram after his statement and formally arrested.

Earlier in the day, the High Court, while dismissing bail pleas of several accused, sharply criticised the SIT for its "lax and selective" approach.

The court observed that the decision to remove the gold plates from the Dwarapalaka sculptures and hand them over for replating was a collective decision of the Travancore Devaswom Board in 2019, as it questioned why board members K.P. Shankardas and N. Vijayakumar, who were part of the board at the time, had not been arraigned as accused.

Describing the case as a rare crime where "the custodians themselves became the destroyers", the court said such a large-scale theft of temple gold could not have occurred without the involvement of senior officials.

It expressed dissatisfaction over the lack of progress in the probe after December 5 and warned that shielding influential accused would not be tolerated.

The court directed the SIT to ensure a watertight investigation, cautioning that corruption of this nature deeply wounded the religious sentiments of lakhs of Ayyappa devotees and demanded an uncompromising judicial response.

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