Money trail and benami links under ED scanner
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday intensified its investigation into the Sabarimala temple gold theft case by conducting coordinated raids across multiple states, including Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu.
Officials said searches are underway at nearly 20 locations as part of a money-laundering probe linked to the alleged siphoning of gold from the famed hill shrine during repair and re-gold plating works.
The case, which came to light publicly in 2019, relates to allegations that gold plating from temple idols and structural components was removed and misappropriated over the years. Investigators have traced the origins of the alleged irregularities back to 1998–99, when extensive gold plating was undertaken at the Sabarimala temple.
According to the probe, gold-coated idols weighing 42.8 kg were taken out of the temple in 2019 for repair. When they were returned, their weight had dropped to 38.2 kg, suggesting that approximately 4.5 kg of gold had gone missing.
The idols of guardian deities and several temple components were reportedly sent to a private firm in Chennai for repair and re-plating. A court later flagged this as an irregular practice, noting that such work is usually carried out within the temple premises under strict supervision.
Investigators also found that the Travancore Devaswom Board had allegedly recorded gold plates as copper plates in official records, a lapse the court described as serious. A Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted on court orders, compared old and new photographs and found evidence that gold plating had been removed from idols, doors, steps, and carved sections of the temple.
While the SIT stated that there was no direct evidence of gold theft from the main idol of Lord Ayyappa, it confirmed that gold was missing from other parts of the temple structure. The investigation further revealed that gold was chemically extracted from plates at the Chennai firm, re-plated in reduced quantities, and the extracted gold eventually reached a jeweller based in Ballari, Karnataka.
So far, 11 people have been arrested in the case, including contractor Unnikrishnan Potti, a Ballari-based jeweller, the owner of the Chennai-based firm, and three CPI(M) leaders, among them former MLA A Padmakumar. The SIT had earlier also arrested the temple’s chief priest.
The ED raids are aimed at tracing the money trail, identifying laundering of proceeds, and uncovering possible benami transactions connected to the missing gold. Officials indicated that further action is likely as the financial investigation progresses.
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