The Kerala High Court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) probing a criminal misappropriation of gold-plated artefacts from the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple appeared to be moving closer to questioning more former Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) members who were among those at the helm of affairs when the crime occurred in 2019.
Notably, two TDB members at the time, K.P. Sankar Das and N. Vijaykumar, have moved the Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge, Vigilance, Kollam, for protection from arrest. Officials said the SIT had not named any 2019 TDB member as an accused in the case. Nevertheless, the High Court had tasked the SIT with investigating whether those on the board at the time had signed off on the order to hand over the gold-plated copper moulds covering the temple’s stone carvings, sculptures and doorway to the prime accused, Unnikrishnan Potti, for “restoration.”
Notably, the SIT has collected specimen signatures and writing samples of TDB officials for forensic analysis and is examining documents for dissent notes, if any, concerning the contentious decision to entrust Mr. Potti with the gilded panels.
It was also attempting to establish the intention to commit a crime in the TDB’s “suspicious misrepresentation” of the gilded objects donated in 1998 by industrialist Vijay Mallya as made of pure copper, possibly to give legal cover to the accused.
