The Kerala High Court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) probing the Sabarimala gold-plated artefacts misappropriation case has obtained the police custody of former Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president and Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leader A. Padmakumar for further questioning.
The SIT had on Wednesday (November 26, 2025) produced Mr. Padmakumar before the Inquiry Commissioner and Special Vigilance Judge, Kollam. The court remanded Mr. Padmakumar in SIT custody till Friday.
CPI(M) unlikely to act against former Travancore Devaswom Board president and district committee member A. Padmakumar till filing of chargesheet in Sabarimala gold theft case
Mr. Padmakumar has been in judicial remand at the District Sub Jail in Thiruvananthapuram, following his arrest last week after hours of questioning at the Kerala State Police Crime Branch office at Enchakkal in Thiruvananthapuram. The SIT had earlier named Mr. Padmakumar as the eighth accused in the case.
It had indicted him primarily for allegedly giving an undue pecuniary advantage to Unnikrishnan Potti, the main accused in the case, by accepting, as the then TDB president, the latter’s “dubious offer” in 2019 to restore the gold-plated copper panels covering the temple’s stone carvings and sculptures to their original golden sheen free of cost. (Industrialist Vijay Mallya had donated the panels to the temple in 1998).
