Keralam: Court grants bail to former TDB member in Sabarimala gold loss cases

A Kollam court granted bail to former TDB member K P Sankaradas in two Sabarimala gold loss cases. The court cited delay in filing charge sheets by the SIT, leading to statutory bail after 90 days of custody in January.

Kollam: A court here on Monday granted bail to former TDB member K P Sankaradas in two cases related to the alleged loss of gold from the Sabarimala Sree Ayyappa Temple.

Kollam Vigilance Court Judge Mohit C S granted bail to Sankaradas in cases pertaining to the alleged loss of gold from the Dwarapalaka (guardian deity) idols and from the door frames of the Sreekovil (sanctum sanctorum).

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With this, all the accused persons arrested in the case have been released on bail.

Sankaradas was a Travancore Devaswom Board member in 2019, when gold artefacts were taken to Chennai for plating, during which the loss is suspected to have occurred.

He was arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in January this year. The court granted statutory bail as 90 days had passed since his arrest, and the SIT has yet to file charge sheets in both cases. Sankaradas is the 14th accused in the Dwarapalaka case and the 11th accused in the Sreekovil door frames case.

The Keralam High Court, which had directed the constitution of the SIT to probe the gold loss incident, has extended the deadline for filing the charge sheet, noting that the investigation is at a crucial stage and samples from the artefacts are being examined with the assistance of central agencies.