Pathanamthitta: The Ranni Judicial First Class Magistrate Court has remanded the second accused in the Sabarimala gold theft case, Murari Babu, to the custody of the Special Investigation Team (SIT). The former Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) administrative officer has been handed over for four days for interrogation and evidence collection.

The SIT plans to take Murari to Thiruvananthapuram and question him alongside the first accused, Unnikrishnan Potty. There are also reports that evidence collection may be conducted at the Sannidhanam. Investigators believe questioning the two together could help expose more details of the alleged fraud. The team has also begun a detailed examination of Potty’s financial transactions and is expected to complete evidence collection with him in Kerala soon.

Murari Babu was earlier suspended by the TDB following a high-level meeting held in Thiruvananthapuram. In 2019, during his tenure as administrative officer, he had reportedly listed the temple’s gold-clad Dwarapalaka plates as “copper plates” in official records before the assets were sent for repair to Smart Creations in Chennai through Unnikrishnan Potty. When the controversy surfaced, Babu told the media that he had recorded them as copper since it was the base metal used, adding that the door frames of the Sreekovil were also sent for gold plating that same year.

The Kerala High Court had directed the SIT to conduct a detailed probe after reviewing its preliminary report, which found that serious damage and loss of gold plating on the Dwarapalakas had been detected as early as 2024. The court noted that despite earlier records showing gold retention and warranty details, officials bypassed a transparent tender process and again handed over the idols to Potty in 2025. It also raised doubts over whether the Dwarapalakas returned were the same ones entrusted in 2019.

The HC observed that all Devaswom officials shared responsibility for failing to weigh and record the idols during refixation and suspected that the 2025 re-entrustment was meant to cover up the 2019 pilferage. Calling Potty a person with “dubious antecedents,” the court said officials had wilfully concealed irregularities.

The SIT has been instructed to expand its investigation beyond the Dwarapalakas and side frames, identify colluding officials, and seize the TDB’s minutes books. The case will be heard again on November 5.