A magistrate court in Ranni, Pathanamthitta, sent Murari Babu, former administrative officer of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), to the custody of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the embezzlement of gilded copper panels from the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple.
Earlier, the SIT had arrested Mr. Baba on suspicion of aiding the fraud by falsely categorizing the gold-plated panels donated to the temple by industrialist Vijay Mallya in 1998 as made of pure copper.
The alleged scam took place in 2019 when the TDB accepted a dubious offer by Unnikrishnan Potti, the main accused in the case and a former temple assistant, to restore the “frayed” panels to their original golden sheen.
The SIT had arrested Mr. Potti in October on charges of melting gold-plated panels for gold. He is also being investigated on suspicion of replicating the gilded molds covering the temple’s stone carvings and statues into a cheaper alloy in order to sell the originals to wealthy collectors.
The SIT also accused him of renting out religious artefacts to wealthy devotees in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai for private worship.
Meanwhile, the SIT produced former Thiruvabharanam Commissioner KS Baiju before a magistrate in Thiruvananthapuram and obtained his judicial custody. The SIT is likely to seek his bond for questioning.
The SIT arrested Mr. Baija, who was in charge of the temple treasury, for allegedly aiding the scam. His absence on the day the covers were dismantled and handed over to Mr. Potti reportedly raised the suspicion of the SIT. Moreover, the SIT accused him of failing to see how his representatives categorized the gold-plated panels as being made of pure copper. Moreover, the absence of the temple blacksmith when the panels were removed from the statues pushed Mr. Baija into the SIT probe area. D. Sudheesh Kumar, a former TDB executive officer, is in judicial custody following his arrest last week.
Published – 07 Nov 2025 21:06 IST
