Former Sabarimala executive officer who helped main accused, arrested in gold theft case
Pathanamthitta (Kerala) (PTI): The SIT probing the alleged disappearance of gold from the Sabarimala temple has arrested former executive officer Sudheesh Kumar, officials said on Saturday.
Kumar, who served as the executive officer of the hill shrine in 2019, was arrested after being questioned at the Crime Branch office in Thiruvananthapuram, sources said.
He has been accused of concealing that the Dwarapalaka (guardian deity) idols were gold-plated, instead recording them as copper sheets in the temple’s official documents.
Sources said Kumar had been associated with Sabarimala since the 1990s and was aware that the sanctum sanctorum, including the Dwarapalaka idols, had been gold-clad during 1998–99.
However, when the Dwarapalaka plates were handed over to the prime accused, Unnikrishnan Potty, for gold plating in 2019, Kumar allegedly documented them as copper plates, enabling the accused to later remove the existing gold plating, an officer said.
Similarly, Kumar recommended to the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) that the Dwarapalaka plates be handed over to Potty for electroplating.
The removal of the plates was carried out without the presence of the TDB Thiruvabharanam (sacred ornament) commissioner, sources said.
He is the third person to be arrested in the case, following Potty and former administrative officer B Murari Babu.
Kumar was produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court here and was remanded to judicial custody.
The court has ordered that he be produced again on Monday.
Meanwhile, the SIT also interrogated Vasudevan, a close aide of Potty.
Investigators said Vasudevan had kept the additional gold-clad pedestal of the Dwarapalaka idols in his custody, which was later seized from the house of Potty’s relative in Thiruvananthapuram last month.
The SIT is investigating two related cases concerning the loss of gold from the Dwarapalaka idols and from the door frames of the Sreekovil (sanctum sanctorum), which were handed over to Potty for electroplating in 2019.
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Passenger, railway staff in Maddur stabbed by two men who fought for train seat
Mandya: An argument over a seat in a train intensified into a fight, resulting in a passenger and a Railways staff member being stabbed and sustaining grievous injuries near the Maddur Railway Station in the district on Wednesday.
The other passengers as well as the locals are said to have caught and assaulted the three accused as they were attempting to escape. The trio, Subaan Qureishi, Shoiab Qureishi and Wasim, has been handed over to the police.
The assault victims, identified as Shivakumar of Tumakuru and Railways staff Kumar were taken to the Maddur Taluk Hospital for first aid and later shifted to the Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences (MIMS) District Hospital.
The argument is said to have erupted over a seat in the Mysuru-Bengaluru train. When a third passenger, Shivakumar, tried to intervene, however, the men fighting for the seat allegedly stabbed him with a knife. Shivakumar is said to have pulled the chain of the train, which was arriving at the Maddur station and was at Channegowdanadoddi on the outskirts of the town, in a desperate attempt to save his life.
The suspects, who tried to jump off the train which was slowing down, stabbed Kumar, the railway gate-keeper near Channegowdanadoddi, as he attempted to stop the duo from escaping.
The other passengers in the train and the locals at the station caught up with the accused, who were escaping and assaulted them physically before handing them over to the police.
A case has been registered by the Railway Police and the officers are investigating the incident.
