Gold robbery: Investigation reaches crucial stage: SIT to arrest more

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The SIT is set to move towards more arrests as the gold theft investigation reaches a crucial stage. A decision will be taken soon on the arrest of KP Shankaradas, who was a board member. Three people related to the Tantri, former board president PS Prashanth and former Devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran are all under question.

Kadakampally denied all the SIT's questions during the three-hour interrogation. Kadakampally will also be in trouble if any contradiction is found in the information in the statement. Shankaradas is in a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram due to paralysis. Doctors have issued a medical certificate stating that he cannot speak and that his health condition will deteriorate if questioned. The SIT has requested to form a medical board led by doctors at the Medical College Hospital to examine Shankaradas' health condition.

Shankardas was a member of the board chaired by A Padmakumar. The SIT had arrested board member N Vijayakumar. It was found that Shankardas was also jointly responsible for the board's decision to give the gold plates to Potty. In the minutes of the board dated March 19, 2019, Padmakumar crossed out the reference to gold-plated brass with green ink and wrote "copper". Shankardas has signed below this. Padmakumar states that it was a collective decision to strike out the brass plating and write 'copper'.

Age determination report soon

A scientific test to determine the age of the gold plating in the temple is underway at the VSSC lab. The report will be submitted to the court in a few days. The gold plating and the Prabhamandalam inside the shrine are about 125 years old. The outer layers are also about three decades old. It is suspected that the original layers were smuggled out, new ones were made of copper, gold-plated and returned.

11 arrested so far

1. Unnikrishnan Potty(Sponsor)
2. Muraribabu(Former Administrative Officer)
3. D. Sudheesh Kumar(Former Executive Officer)
4. K.S. Baiju(Former Thiruvabharanam Commissioner)-
5. N. Vasu(Former Board President and Commissioner)
6. A. Padmakumar(Former Board President)
7. S. Sreekumar(Former Administrative Officer)
8. Pankaj Bhandari(Owner of a gold extraction establishment)
9. Govardhan(Owner of a jewellery shop in Bellary
10. Vijayakumar(Former Board Member)
11. Kandararu Rajeevaru(Temple Thantri)