Sabarimala gold theft case: SIT defers recording Ramesh Chennithala’s statement

The Kerala High Court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) probing the theft of gold-plated copper artefacts from Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple has deferred recording the statement of former Kerala Home Minister and senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala to an unannounced date. 

The SIT was slated to record Mr Chennithala’s statement at the Kerala Police Crime Branch office at 11 a.m. on Wednesday (December 10, 2025). The MLA’s office said the SIT contacted them at 10 a.m. and informed that the investigating officer was indisposed without citing any reason. The SIT has also not set a specific date to record Mr Chennithala’s statement. 

Last week, Mr Chennithala wrote to the Additional Director General of Police, Crime Branch and Law and Order, H. Venkatesh, stating that he had credible information about a “global conspiracy” involving international gangs which trade in revered objects looted from religious places of worship for sale to wealthy collectors. 

Mr Chennithala told reporters that a non-resident Keralite businessman had approached him, stating he was willing to provide more information about the crime to the SIT. He said the industrialist was hesitant to approach the SIT independently and had sought his intervention. Mr Chennithala said the informant had expressed willingness to give an official deposition in-camera. 

Claims of direct knowledge

Mr Chennithala said the businessperson claimed to have direct knowledge that the theft of gilded moulds encasing the stone carvings, sculptures flanking the entrance to the sanctum sanctorum and the presiding deity’s doorway was the result of an entrenched conspiracy between Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) officials, including political appointees and international rackets which trade in such valuable objects, including antiques. 

Officials said the SIT would record Mr Chennithala’s statement under Section 180 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). 

Mr Chennithala’s voluntary statement comes at a time when the SIT was reportedly poised to investigate the High Court’s misgivings about whether the suspects had replicated the gilded panels and sold the originals to wealthy collectors. 

However, an official said, the gilded panels donated to the temple in 1998 by industrialist Vijay Mallya were not antiques. However, he said, the objects possessed an unquantifiable identity value, given that devotees equate them with the temple and its religious significance. 

He said the gilded moulds, fashioned to cover the sculptures and doorway, broadly fell into the category of reliquaries, ornate casings for objects of religious value, and were hence pricey on the international black market for such artefacts. However, tracing such objects sold clandestinely to wealthy collectors and restituting them to the Ayyappa temple proved challenging. 

For instance, officials noted that the theft of the “emerald” idol, Maragatha Lingam, from the Adi Sankara Janmabhoomi Temple at Kalady in Ernakulam in 2009 remained untraced despite the best efforts of the Kerala Police Temple Theft Special Investigation Team. “Rumours linked the theft to international antique smugglers. The police estimated the idol, donated to the temple by the king of Mysore in 1910, to be at least 500 years old”, he added. 

Officials said the SIT’s court filings indicated that the original gilded encasings were either altered, smelted, or otherwise tampered with. When they were returned to the temple after restoration in 2019, auditors noted a lessening in weight. In 2025, a Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) Vigilance examination revealed a lower gold content in the alloy. 

The SIT had traced the Chennai-based metal works unit contracted by the prime accused, Unnikrishnan Potti, to restore the artefacts to their original golden sheen. 

It also recorded statements from wealthy celebrities who chartered out the panels from Mr Potti for private worship at their houses and business premises in 2019. 

Meanwhile, the Vigilance Inquiry Commissioner and Special Judge, Kollam, will hear the Enforcement Directorate’s plea for SIT records to probe the suspected money-laundering angle in the case.