Former Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president A Padmakumar was arrested by the Special Investigating Team (SIT) in connection with the alleged disappearance of gold from the Sabarimala Temple in Kerala's Pathanamthitta district, said officials on Thursday. This comes hours after Padmakumar, a former MLA in the Kerala Legislative Assembly, was questioned by the SIT at the Crime Branch office in Thiruvananthapuram.
"The investigation has found that Padmakumar is the main mastermind behind the gold robbery case," said officials. "The SIT finding is that Padmakumar held secret discussions with Unnikrishnan Potty at his house."
Padmakumar, a senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader, was made the president of the TDB in 2019 when a proposal was made to hand over the gold-clad copper plates of the Dwarapalaka (guardian deity) idols and the Sreekovil (sanctum sanctorum) door frames to Potty for electroplating. However, Padmakumar - who had sought more time to appear before the SIT - has always maintained that he was never the TDB president when the gold-clad copper plates were handed over to Potty.
This is the fifth arrest in the case. Earlier, the SIT had arrested main accused Potty, former Executive Officer Sudheesh Kumar and ex-administrative officer B Murari Babu.
Meanwhile, N Vasu, who succussed Padmakumar as TDB president, has been sent to SIT custody by a Vigilance Court in Kollam till 4 pm on Thursday. This comes after the SIT moved the court, seeking Vasu's custody for a day to question him in connection with the case.
On Thursday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also protested against Vasu, with many of saffron party's workers raising slogans against him and attempting to block the vehicle in which he was shifted from the court to the Crime Branch office in Thiruvananthapuram.
