Sabarimala gold scam: HC denies bail to A Padmakumar, 2 others

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Wednesday declined to grant bail to former Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) officials ‑ A Padmakumar and Murari Babu, and Karnataka-based jeweller Roddam Govardhan, in connection with cases alleging misappropriation of gold from the Dwarapalaka idols and doorframes of the Sreekovil at Sabarimala Ayyappa temple.

Justice A Badharudeen delivered the order in the open court on Wednesday noon after reserving the verdict. The detailed order is yet to be made available.

The accused face charges under Sections 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant), 466 (forgery of records), and 467 (forgery of valuable security), read with Section 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, along with Section 13(1)(a) of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018. The FIRs are registered by the Crime Branch.

Case background
A Padmakumar served as the president of the Travancore Devaswom Board between 2017 and 2019. He is named as the eighth accused in the Sabarimala gold theft case, which is being probed by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by a Division Bench of the High Court. The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) is also probing the gold theft after registering a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

According to the prosecution, Padmakumar conspired with the other accused to misappropriate gold from the temple’s doorframes while holding public office. It is alleged that, as president, he allowed repair and re-plating work on the doorframes in violation of prescribed maintenance (maramath) procedures and Devaswom manuals.

Padmakumar was arrested on November 20 and has remained in custody since then. After his bail plea was rejected by the Special Judge, he approached the High Court.

In his bail application, Govardhan claimed he had no involvement in the alleged misappropriation and stated that he had donated 184 grams of gold, worth around ₹9 lakh, in June 2019 for gold-plating the frame. He further alleged that despite fully cooperating with the investigation from the outset, the Special Investigation Team coerced him into handing over 474.970 grams of gold.

Govardhan was taken into custody on December 19 and has remained jailed since. He directly approached the High Court seeking bail in both cases.

The specific charge against Murari Babu is that, while serving as Administrative Officer, he allegedly misrepresented gold-clad idols and pillars as copper plates and submitted a recommendation to the thantri for gold-plating. This action allegedly resulted in the removal of these items and their handover to the prime accused, Unnikrishnan Potti.

Babu was arrested on October 23 and has been in judicial custody since. His previous bail pleas had been dismissed by the High Court, making this his second attempt to secure relief.
(With Live Law inputs)