In the Sabarimala gold theft case, the arrested sponsor, Unnikrishnan Potti, has been remanded to the custody of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) for 14 days. The Ranni court in Pathanamthitta district granted the custody after considering the SIT’s request when Potti was produced before it. The court also allowed him 10 minutes to consult his lawyer.
The SIT officially recorded the arrest of the first accused, Potti, at around 2:30 a.m. on October 17, following more than ten hours of interrogation.
The Crime Branch has charged Potti under Sections 403, 406, 409, 466, and 467 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) — provisions that cover offences ranging from dishonest misappropriation of property to forgery. Section 34 of the IPC, which deals with acts done by several persons in furtherance of a common intention, has also been invoked.
Notably, after coming out of the court, Potti told the media that “those who had trapped me will come before the court.”
According to the SIT’s arrest report, Potti misappropriated about 2 kilograms of gold from Sabarimala under the pretext of repair work on July 19 and 20, 2019, by breaching trust and violating existing legal orders and procedures. The SIT further stated that the gold-plated copper plates were then taken to Bengaluru and Hyderabad, and later to Chennai Smart Creations, where 394.800 grams of gold were melted and extracted. The remaining quantity of gold was illegally taken, causing unlawful financial loss to the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB).
The SIT also noted that Potti transported the Dwarapalaka idol coverings and copper sheets to temples and houses in Chennai, Bengaluru, and Kerala without any security, where they were used for rituals and poojas.
Unnikrishnan Potti, who hails from Pulimath village near Chirayinkeezh, is the son of a local priest, Narayanan Potti. He first arrived at Sabarimala as an assistant to Keezh Shanti. Though he later lost that job, he carved out a niche for himself as the go-to person for arranging special privileges for the temple’s affluent patrons. Offerings and contributions from devotees outside Kerala allegedly began to flow through him.
It was in 2019, Potti became a high-profile “sponsor” in a dubious deal — approved by the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) — to fix gold-plated copper coverings on the Dwarapalaka idols at the entrance to the temple’s sanctum sanctorum. The controversy erupted when the TDB once more handed over the coverings to Potti for another round of so-called “repairs” on September 7 this year, without following proper procedures . |
