The Particular Investigation Workforce (SIT) probing the legal misappropriation of the Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple’s gold-plated non secular artefacts has questioned Communist Get together of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) State Committee member and former Devaswom Board Minister, Kadakampally Surendran.
Officers stated the SIT recorded Mr. Surendran’s assertion at a Kerala Police Crime Department “protected home” in Thiruvananthapuram on an unspecified date final week. They stated the SIT had additionally questioned former Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president P Prasanth.
Mr. Surendran was the Devaswom Minister when the crime unfolded in 2019. Officers stated the SIT reportedly sought to find out whether or not Mr. Surendran, as Minister, had any direct or oblique function in permitting the prime suspect, Unnikrishnan Potti, to take possession of the gilded coverings encasing the temple’s stone sculptures and carvings underneath the pretext of restoring them to their unique golden sheen by way of a chemical course of at Good Creations, a gold plating manufacturing facility at Ambattur in Chennai.
In accordance with officers, Mr. Surendran reportedly advised the SIT that the federal government’s function in TDB administration was restricted to coverage and sweeping administrative oversight, primarily by way of the Income division’s Devaswom wing.
In accordance with sources, Mr. Surendran reportedly underlined that the TDB was an autonomous physique with statutory powers and, as such, its on a regular basis administrative capabilities have been, by default, impartial of the federal government. Therefore, the federal government had no function in TDB’s resolution to contract Mr. Potti to refurbish the gilded panels donated to the temple by industrialist Vijay Mallya in 1998.
Officers stated the SIT questioned Mr. Prasanth concerning the TDB’s resolution to entrust the gilded panels to Mr. Potti once more in 2025, in violation of the temple guide and regardless of pink flags raised by the Board’s vigilance wing.
They stated Mr. Prasanth acknowledged that Good Creations had, in 2019, given a ten-year guarantee for the “restored” gold-plated coverings.
He reportedly advised the SIT that Good Creations had, in hindsight, “suspiciously” named Mr. Potti because the warrantee, thereby constraining the TDB to hunt his companies for a second time in six years.
Mr. Prasanth stated that, not like in 2019, the TDB despatched the artefacts to Good Creations in a safe authorities car escorted by cellular armed police items. He reportedly conceded that the TDB had failed to hunt the Excessive Courtroom’s prior permission to maneuver the objects from the temple to Chennai for restore and subsequently submitted an apology.
Printed – December 30, 2025 06:09 pm IST