Sabarimala Gold Theft Case: Key Priest Arrested, ED Files Money Laundering Case

Thiruvananthapuram: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged Sabarimala gold theft case has arrested the chief priest of the temple, Kantaru Rajeevaru, on Friday, making it the 13th arrest in the high-profile case so far. In another major development, the Kochi unit Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered an ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against the key accused, a move which is likely to surge the influence of the case in the run upto the Kerala elections this year.

Key Priest Arrested

Tantri Kantaru Rajeevaru is a prominent figure in the Thazhamon family, who are the hereditary priests of the Sabarimala temple. He had been summoned for questioning by the SIT after they received further crucial evidence related to the case, and statements of the key accused Unnikrishnan Potty and others, who substantiated it.

From what has been known from the probe team so far, this priest was the one who supported the prime accused, Potty, and introduced him to the temple board.

Industrialist Vijay Mallya had donated 1,900 kilos of copper and 30.3 kg of gold in 1998 for the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala's woodwork carvings and sanctum sanctorum's coating. Allegations of anomalies in the gold plating at the temple were noted in September 2025, raising alarm.

SIT Investigation Phases

The SIT was formed following a High Court order, dated October 6, 2025.

Since then, the investigation has been conducted by the SIT under the supervision of the Kerala High Court, and it can be divided into phases. The first phase involved the gold cladding of numerous adornments and artefacts in and around the Sabarimala temple's sanctuary sanctorum.

The second step looked into the replacement of the preexisting gold-clad door of the sanctum sanctorum, or, the innermost sanctuary, of the temple with a new gold-plated one, back in 2019. The next phase of investigation closely traced the removal of the gold-clad dwarapalaka idol plates, side plates, and door-frame plates, which was also done in 2019. The fourth phase includes examining all transactions related to the gold plating of the dwarapalaka idol plates as reported in 2025.

Sabarimala Gold Theft Case: What Happened So Far? 

On June 17, 2019, an application was submitted by Unnikrishnan Potty, who worked as an assistant to a priest in the temple and is now the prime accused in the Sabarimala gold theft case. He pitched in to repair and refinish the gold-plating on the doorkeeper idols and the sanctuary door frames.

The removal of the artefacts and twelve pictures of Dwarapalakas was authorised by the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) on July 3, 2019 and Sabarimala's Administrative Officer, S Sreekumar, on July 17.

According to the SIT, the records misrepresented the antiquities as regular copper metal plates even though they were already gold-plated. 25.4 kg was the recorded total weight. Two door frames weighing 17.4 kg were sent over for new plating on July 20.

Some of the witnesses on the list were not present, the documents were made without the required authorisation, and signatures were collected on Unnikrishnan Potti's behalf by those who were later recognised as his associates, the SIT reportedly stated. The artefacts were allegedly taken to Chennai's Smart Creations, owned by Pankaj Bhandari, via Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) said R G Radhakrishnan, who was then serving as Thiruvabharanam Commissioner and was responsible for safeguarding the valuables, visited Smart Creations on August 29 and 30, where the artefacts were weighed before and after the gold-plating process. The SIT claimed this marked the beginning of the involvement of TDB officials, noting that a substantial loss in weight caused by the removal of gold went undetected.

Investigators said that when the artefacts were returned to Sabarimala on September 11, 2019, mandatory audit checks were not carried out, and that the prime accused allegedly retained custody of the artefacts for 53 days.

The SIT further alleged that Bellary-based jeweller Govardhan Roddam was a key conspirator along with Unnikrishnan Potty and Pankaj Bhandari. The probe team said Roddam was aware that the plates were gold-coated and helped arrange their transport from Hyderabad to Chennai.

ED Takes Up Sabarimala Gold Theft Case

ED will reportedly examine the money-laundering aspects of the case. If any accused is currently out on bail in the SIT case, they may be taken under ED custody if an arrest is made. The accused's assets are likely to be looked into as part of the ED's action on the case.  

After money laundering issues were suspected to have emerged related to the case, the ED allegedly started preliminary investigations and filed a petition with the Kollam Vigilance Court seeking custody of documents. The judge approved the petition, granting the ED access to the records despite the SIT's opposition. Following a thorough examination, the ED requested permission from the Centre to file its own lawsuit. All of the accused are now expected to provide statements to the agency.

Also Read: Sabarimala Gold Theft Case: SIT Arrests Former Travancore Devaswom Board Member Vijayakumar