All fingers point to Devaswom Board in Sabarimala gold theft; Former president A Padmakumar feels the heat

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Special Investigation Team appointed by the High Court made the former governing body of the Travancore Devaswom Board, of which CPM leader A Padmakumar was the president, an accused in the Sabarimala gold theft case. With this, Padmakumar and the then board members K.P. Shankaradas and N. Vijayakumar will have to face police action.

Their names have not been mentioned in the FIR. The governing body is eighth in the list of accused. Shankaradas is a representative of the CPI, and Vijayakumar is a representative of the CPM. They were accused of stealing gold from the door frame of the sanctum sanctorum. They have not been accused of theft from the Dwarapalaka sculptures.

The decision compounded the headache for the LDF government, as most of the accused are from the left party.

In 2019, the Executive Officer stated in a letter to the Board that Unnikrishnan Potty was to be handed over gold-plated copper plates. However, the governing body issued an order granting permission to hand over the copper plates. Before issuing the order, the Devaswom Commissioner had handed over the letter mentioning the copper plates to the governing body and prepared a conducive situation. The investigation team doubts a conspiracy behind this move to seize the gold. In both cases, Unnikrishnan Potty is the first accused and nine Devaswom officials, including retired ones, are co-accused.

According to the amendment in the law brought in 2013, the Devaswom Secretary must issue orders with the permission of the board.

That is why the governing body has come under the scanner in the FIR. With this, the board members' false pretence of ignorance has been exposed.

The order of the then secretary, S Jayashree, which clearly states that it was issued on behalf of the Devaswom Board, will be examined by the special investigation team. Jayashree is also an accused.

The FIR states that the gold-plated panels on the Sabarimala sanctum sanctorum door were omitted and replaced with copper panels, as per the letter, intending to reap a profit for the accused.