Former TDB president A. Padmakumar following his arrest by the SIT within the Sabarimala temple gold theft case on November 20, 2025. Photograph Credit score: JAYAMOHAN A
The Kerala Excessive Court docket-appointed particular investigation group (SIT) probing the Sabarimala gold-plated artefacts misappropriation case has obtained the police custody of former Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president and Communist Social gathering of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) chief A. Padmakumar for additional questioning.
The SIT had on Wednesday (November 26, 2025) produced Mr. Padmakumar earlier than the Inquiry Commissioner and Particular Vigilance Choose, Kollam. The court docket remanded Mr. Padmakumar in SIT custody until Friday.
Mr. Padmakumar has been in judicial remand on the District Sub Jail in Thiruvananthapuram, following his arrest final week after hours of questioning on the Kerala State Police Crime Department workplace at Enchakkal in Thiruvananthapuram. The SIT had earlier named Mr. Padmakumar because the eighth accused within the case.
It had indicted him primarily for allegedly giving an undue pecuniary benefit to Unnikrishnan Potti, the primary accused within the case, by accepting, because the then TDB president, the latter’s “doubtful supply” in 2019 to revive the gold-plated copper panels masking the temple’s stone carvings and sculptures to their authentic golden sheen freed from price. (Industrialist Vijay Mallya had donated the panels to the temple in 1998).
The SIT had additionally accused Mr. Padmakumar of presiding over the “wilful miscategorization” of the gilded panels as fabricated from pure copper, allegedly opening the door to their suspected replication, smelting the alloy for gold, and chartering out the artefacts to rich devotees for personal veneration at their houses and enterprise premises.
The SIT’s case was that the “false accounting” of the dear alloy’s metallic properties offered the suspects with a protect towards potential authorized jeopardy and opened the door for the pilferage.
FollowingMr. Padmakumar’s arrest, the SIT raided his home at Aranmula and confiscated a number of gadgets, together with financial institution statements, title deeds, different monetary data and his passport.
Officers stated the SIT appeared keen to look at the character of Mr. Padmakumar’s relationship with Mr. Potti and whether or not they had a mutually helpful monetary association.
Moreover, the SIT has already requested particulars relating to any overseas journey undertaken by Mr. Padmakumar.
Officers stated the SIT was additionally probing Mr. Padmakumar, together with different suspects within the case, on expenses of theft, legal misappropriation, breach of belief, and falsification of data in regards to the crime.
The SIT was additionally investigating whether or not Mr. Padmakumar had “altered” the TDB minutes to facilitate the crime by unduly favoring Mr. Potti.
Mr. Potti, who labored as an aide to an assistant priest on the temple through the 2004–08 interval, had subsequently cultivated a community of rich donors and gained traction throughout the TDB and likewise Sabarimala’s priestly orthodoxy.
The alleged crime got here to gentle after Mr. Potti advised information channels earlier that two gold-plated copper panels he had “donated” to the temple in 2019 had gone lacking. The Excessive Court docket ordered the TDB’s Vigilance wing to research the allegation. The interior Vigilance recovered the “lacking” panels from Mr. Potti’s home, lifting the lid on different felonies, together with misappropriation of temple artefacts.
Revealed – November 26, 2025 12:59 pm IST