Sabarimala gold heist: Former TDB official held; arrests rise to 7

SIT probing the Sabarimala gold heist has arrested former Administrative Officer Sreekumar after the High Court rejected his anticipatory bail plea, taking total arrests to seven, even as the ED sought case records for a parallel money laundering probe

Thiruvananthapuram: In a significant development in the Sabarimala gold heist case, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Wednesday recorded the arrest of a former TDB official, Sreekumar, who served as Administrative Officer (AO) at Sabarimala in 2019.

The arrest came shortly after the High Court rejected his anticipatory bail petition. With this, the total number of arrests in the case has risen to seven.

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Sreekumar maintained that, in his official capacity, he merely transferred files following instructions from senior authorities.

According to the SIT, the gold at Kattilappally, recorded as a ‘bronze-gold’ item, was handled based on recommendations made by N Vasu, who was Devaswom Commissioner in 2019.

Vasu stated that he had only forwarded a letter from Murari Babu to the temple board for appropriate action and that the records were handed over to Unnikrishnan Potti only after Vasu’s retirement.

Among the arrested others are two former Travancore Devasom Board presidents — A. Padmakumar and N. Vasu, besides one serving and two retired officials, and the prime accused Unnikrishnan Potti.

In a related development, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has approached the Kollam Vigilance Court requesting access to case documents, including the FIR and remand reports, as part of its probe into alleged money laundering linked to the heist.

The court addressed the application the following day, hearing arguments from both the ED and the SIT and has posted its orders for Friday.

The SIT opposed the release of documents, citing concerns that sharing them could impact the ongoing investigation. The prosecution argued that providing the records would not lead to the actual perpetrators.

The court sought clarification on how the ED’s inquiry could interfere with the SIT’s ongoing probe.

The ED contended that the documents were requested with the High Court’s approval and were essential to track the financial transactions involved in the case.

Incidentally, a retired woman official on Wednesday approached the Supreme Court seeking pre-arrest bail after the High Court rejected her plea.