High-ups colluded: Devaswom officials with clear role in gold theft

PATHANAMTHITTA: The remand report submitted to the court by the Special Investigation Team clearly states the role of nine Devaswom Board officials accused in the gold plate theft case.

Murari Babu:

Second accused. Former administrative officer. Even though he knew that the copper plates of the Dwarpalaka sculptures were covered with gold in 1998, he wrote that they were just copper plates in 2019 and gave a report that was contrary to the facts for the purpose of gold plating.

D. Sudheesh Kumar

Third accused. Former executive officer. Following an email received from Chennai Smart Creations for gold plating, he filed an illegal report to the Devaswom Board in 2024 requesting permission to cover the Dwarpalaka sculptures with gold. He wrote "copper plates" even though he knew that they were gold plated. He wrote "just copper plates" on the mahazars prepared at the time of handing over the plates.

S. Jayashree

Fourth accused. Former Devaswom Secretary. She wrote the names of those who were not present at the time of writing the mahazar as present. Gave an order to hand over the plates of the Dwarpalaka sculptures to Unnikrishnan Potty.

K Sunilkumar & S Sreekumar

Fifth and sixth accused. Former Assistant Engineer and former Administrative Officer. They signed as witnesses on the mahazar, which said "copper plates". It was Sreekumar who prepared the mahazar without weighing the gold ornaments when they were returned on September 11, 2019.

KS Baiju

Seventh accused. Former Thiruvabharanam Commissioner.

Although he was responsible for supervising the removal and handover of the Dwarpalaka sculptures, he did not assign a smith to check the weight etc.

RG Radhakrishnan

Eighth accused. The Thiruvabharanam Commissioner before Baiju. He did not measure the weight of the gold plates at Smart Creations.

VS Rajendraprasad & K Rajendrakumar

Nine and ten accused. Former executive officer and former administrative officer. They prepared the mahazar carelessly while reinstalling the Dwarpalaka sculptures, without measuring their weights. They allowed the gold-plated "Thangu peedam" of the Devaswom to be installed on the Dwarapalaka sculpture without registering it in the Thiruvabharanam register or any other register. The mahazar was not prepared this time either.