Pathanamthitta: The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau on Wednesday arrested a junior priest (keezh santhi) in connection with the alleged misappropriation of funds from the sale of Adiya Sishtam ghee during last year’s Sabarimala mandala-makaravilakku pilgrimage season.

The accused, K R Sunilkumar Potty, a native of Aroor in Alappuzha district, was taken into custody by the Vigilance Pathanamthitta unit. He is the former junior priest at the Chaliyekkara Bhadrakali Temple under the Punalur Group of the Travancore Devaswom Board and was entrusted with overseeing the sale of Adiya Sishtam ghee at Sabarimala during the 2025 pilgrimage season. He is the 13th accused in the case and, so far, the only person arrested.

The case has been registered under charges including misappropriation of funds, fabrication of documents and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The Vigilance department has filed an FIR at the Kollam Vigilance Court naming 33 accused, including an assistant Devaswom commissioner. Sunilkumar Potty will be produced before the Kollam Vigilance Court on Thursday.

Vigilance officials said ₹36.24 lakh collected from the sale of ghee packets was not remitted to the Travancore Devaswom Board, resulting in a substantial financial loss. Investigators allege that employees assigned to sell the ghee failed to deposit the full amount collected and that stock records were manipulated to conceal the shortfall.

Officials responsible for distribution figure first in the list of accused. Although Sunilkumar Potty is listed as the 13th accused, vigilance officials said he acted as a key link in the fraud while manning the counter. The probe has found that he was involved in two related irregularities. Following the detection of the fraud, the Devaswom Board had suspended him during the makaravilakku season itself. TDB special officers S R Santhosh Kumar, K Sainuraj, and M T Aneesh, who were in charge of the stock, were booked in the case. Of them, Santhosh Kumar serves as the Neyyattinkara Sub Group Officer, Sainuraj as the Mundakkayam Administrative Officer, while M T Aneesh is a Second Grade Overseer from Muvattupuzha.

According to vigilance records, ₹89.12 lakh should have been deposited with the Devaswom Board from the sale of 89,129 packets of ghee. However, a stock verification conducted on December 27 showed that only ₹75.45 lakh, corresponding to 75,450 packets, had been remitted, revealing an initial irregularity of ₹13.67 lakh. After the mandala pooja, when the temple was closed on December 27, 28,550 packets of ghee were kept in storage. During a store inspection on January 2, officials found that only 5,985 packets were in stock. The final shortfall involved 22,565 packets of ghee from the Temple Special Officer’s stock, valued at ₹22.56 lakh.

The arrest follows a Kerala High Court order on January 13 directing a vigilance probe into the alleged scam. A division bench of Justices Raja Vijayaraghavan V and K V Jayakumar had instructed the VACB to register a case and constitute a special investigation team.

Expressing serious concern, the High Court said it was “shocked and deeply disturbed” by the large-scale diversion of funds within a short period. The bench pointed to grave lapses in supervision, stock control and timely remittance of collections, and observed that such misappropriation could not have occurred without the knowledge or wilful neglect of officials at higher administrative levels. Further investigation is underway, and the vigilance team has been directed to submit a progress report to the High Court within a month.