Sabarimala gold theft; setback for Murari Babu, Kollam Vigilance Court rejects bail plea

KOLLAM: The bail application of former administrative officer B Murari Babu, who was arrested in the Sabarimala gold robbery case, has been rejected. The order was made by the Kollam Vigilance Court. Murari Babu is the second accused in the case of stealing gold from the Dwarapalaka sculptures of the shrine in 2019. He is the sixth accused in the door frame case. Bail applications in both these cases were rejected. Murari Babu was arrested by the Special Investigation Team on October 22.

The prosecution argued that the accused was involved in a conspiracy and that granting bail would affect the investigation. Murari Babu's argument was that he was only acting on the orders of the board as a subordinate officer and had no role in the gold theft. The defence argued that the proceedings had begun even before Murari Babu took charge as an administrative officer.

Murari Babu was an administrative officer at Sabarimala in 2019. Murari Babu, who knew that the shrine was covered in gold in 1998, incorrectly recorded the layers as copper in 2019 and 2024. It was Murari Babu who recommended to the Devaswom Board last year that the first accused Unnikrishnan Potty be given the charge of covering the layers in gold. The Special Investigation Team concluded that this was a planned move to steal the gold again.