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Thiruvananthapuram: The arrest of former Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president and CPI(M) leader A. Padmakumar in the Sabarimala gold scam case has cast a shadow over the LDF’s local body election campaign.
Padmakumar, a former CPI(M) MLA and the party’s Pathanamthitta district secretariat member, was arrested and remanded on Thursday after hours of grilling by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case.
Another former TDB president, N. Vasu, who also has a long-standing association with the CPI(M), was arrested and remanded a few days ago.
The politically significant arrests came as the SIT probe—monitored by the Kerala High Court—went deeper into the conspiracy behind the theft of invaluable temple assets, allegedly with the involvement of top temple board officials in 2019.
Also Read: Sabarimala Gold Scam: More high-profile arrests on the cards as SIT probes deeper
When Padmakumar was the TDB president, Vasu was the Devaswom Commissioner. Later, Vasu became TDB president after Padmakumar completed his tenure. During this entire period, the LDF was in power. The Devaswom portfolio at the time was held by senior CPI(M) leader Kadakampally Surendran.
The Sabarimala gold scam, in brief, is as follows: In 1998, liquor baron Vijay Mallya—now facing extradition proceedings for alleged financial crimes in India—had the roof and portals of the famed Sabarimala Sree Dharma Sastha Temple’s sanctum sanctorum gold-plated. In 2019, the TDB decided to refurbish the gold cladding on the two Dwarapalaka idols flanking the ornately plated portal. At that time, one Unnikrishnan Potti appeared as an intermediary to secure sponsorship from affluent donors and arranged for the precious objects to be moved out. By the time they were returned, much of the solid gold used in them had vanished.
This brazen loot of precious temple wealth allegedly took place with the knowledge—and suspected involvement—of the then temple administrators and top officials.
Both Vasu and Padmakumar had initially claimed that they had no role in any decision that led to the theft. They asserted that such matters were handled by top temple officials. However, the records unearthed by investigators and interrogations of the arrested officials have contradicted their claims.
Investigators maintain that it would have been impossible to remove such valuable objects without the concurrence of the board’s top leadership.
Both the Congress-led UDF and the BJP have turned the temple theft into a major campaign theme in the local body polls, using it to target the LDF. They argue that politically connected bigwigs are finally facing consequences only because the probe is under direct High Court monitoring.
Putting on a brave face, CPI(M) leaders insist that neither the party nor the government will protect anyone responsible for the loot.
Adding to the government’s discomfort, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also stepped in, invoking its mandate as the central agency empowered to intervene in serious offences and fraud falling under the PMLA Act.
Significantly, the conspiracy behind the multi-layered temple gold scam has started unraveling even as the two-month-long Sabarimala pilgrimage season is in progress.
Ensuring the hassle-free conduct of the pilgrimage is a major test for the government and for the newly constituted temple board headed by former chief secretary K. Jayakumar. The government had apparently brought in Jayakumar, known for his unblemished record as a bureaucrat, to help calm the political storm triggered by the gold loot scandal.
Meanwhile, there has been a heavy rush of pilgrims, both from Kerala and outside the state, from the very first day of the season, causing anxious moments for temple authorities.
With crowd management being the biggest challenge, the initial days exposed gaps in advance preparedness to handle the massive influx. After the initial panic, the situation has been brought under control through the deployment of adequate personnel to ensure smooth movement of devotees.
