SIT’s confidential interim report in HC triggers political sabre-rattling and demands for disbanding the TDB

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) ‘s confidential interim progress report on its probe into the sensational misappropriation of gold-plated religious artefacts from the Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple appeared to roil State politics.

 The High Court examined the report in camera on Wednesday, sparking speculation-driven recriminatory accusations, political sabre-rattling, and demands for the disbanding of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB).

For one, the Leader of the Opposition V. D. Satheesan, demanded the immediate arrest and incarceration of former Devaswom Commissioner N. Vasu, who the SIT recently questioned. 

Mr Satheesan demanded that the government immediately disband the TDB. He accused the current disposition of entrusting the gilded panels for ostensible restoration to Unnikrishnan Potti, the prime accused in the case, again in 2025.

Mr Satheesan accused the TDB of wilfully overlooking the cautionary red flags raised by the Devaswom’s internal vigilance, including chartering the religious objects to wealthy devotees for private worship, possible replication to sell the original and a drastic reduction in their weight, including gold, when returned to the temple after purported restoration in 2019.

“The UDF will not allow the government to extend the term of the current Board It will take to the streets”, he stated. 

Mr Satheesan said the SIT’s “interim findings” pointed to official collusion at the highest levels of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government and its political appointees at the helm of the TDB during the 2019-2025 period. 

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State president Rajeev Chandrasekhar requested the Governor Rajendra Arlerkar to reject the government’s impending ordinance seeking to extend the current tenure of the TDB. 

Mr Chandrasekhar slammed the LDF for brazenly endorsing the “tainted” TDB’s corruption and “criminal role” in the theft of Sabarimala property by seeking an extension of its term. 

Devaswom Board Minister V. N. Vasavan said the High Court had observed that the SIT was on the right track and the opposition had no credible reason to blame the government for the crime. 

TDB president P. S. Prasanth stated that the SIT investigation would encompass the Board’s transactions as well as the use and movement of the temple’s artefacts, with retrospective effect from 1998. “The actions of past TDB administrations are also under the HC-appointed SIT’s scrutiny,” he added.