The alleged irregularities in the gold-plating of copper plaques forming part of the Dwarapalaka idols at Sabarimala has now snowballed into a full-blown scandal, with Vigilance sleuths preparing to interrogate Unnikrishnan Potti over his suspected role in several dubious deals by misusing his connections to the hill temple.
Official sources confirmed that Mr. Potti would face detailed questioning on Saturday regarding his involvement in the episode. A team led by Devaswom Vigilance SP Sunil Kumar has already unearthed details of several questionable transactions allegedly linked to him.
“The inquiry so far indicates that Potti raised large sums of money from Ayyappa devotees in Karnataka under the pretext of funding gold-plating for the sanctum sanctorum and sponsoring free food offerings. He is also believed to have collected funds from devotees in other States,” the sources said.
Investigators suspect that Mr. Potti had taken the gold-clad copper plates to Bengaluru in 2019 as part of this fundraising drive. Allegations had surfaced earlier as well, accusing him of misusing his ‘claimed’ close ties with Sabarimala to solicit money from wealthy Ayyappa devotees in Karnataka.
Meanwhile, fresh reports also suggest that Mr. Potti made another attempt in 2023 to remove the plaques from the hill shrine for gold-plating, an effort now under the Vigilance scanner. The alleged involvement of a Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) official is also being examined.
The controversy deepened after the High Court ordered a Vigilance probe, noting a discrepancy in the weight of the plaques. When removed in 2019 for fresh gold-plating, they weighed 42.8 kg. But when they were presented to the company entrusted with the work in 2025, the weight had dropped to 38.258 kg.
Meanwhile, TDB president P.S. Prashanth acknowledged lapses on the part of officials in presenting accurate figures of gold in Sabarimala before the court.
Mr. Prashanth said the board maintained precise records of gold holdings of the temples under the TDB. At present, the gold was stored across 18 lockers, with 467 kg handed over to the Reserve Bank of India under the gold monetisation scheme.
He emphasised that all of this was properly documented, but admitted that officials erred in failing to submit the relevant records before the High Court.
Published – October 02, 2025 07:50 pm IST
