Sabarimala gold scam: Vigilance court grants bail to Tantri Kandararu Rajeevaru in 2 cases

Kollam: Kollam Vigilance Court, on Wednesday, granted bail to Tantri Kandararu Rajeevaru in two cases related to the alleged misappropriation of gold from the door frames and dwarapalaka idols of the Sabarimala temple.

He was arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the gold scam case on January 9, 2026. Initially arrested for alleged gold theft from door frames, he was arrested again in the second case while in judicial custody. 

The prosecution case was that in the application prepared and received from the first accused in the case, Unnikrishnan Potty, by the Sabarimala Administrative Officer on June 17, 2019, Tantri stated that the gold-plated copper plates on both sides of the door in front of the Sabarimala temple and the copper plates covering the south and north corners have reduced and the copper has become visible and so it's permissible to clean and gold-plate the idols on both sides of the door infront of the Sabarimala temple.

 It was alleged that Tantri had established a close relationship with Potty and maintained this relationship from time to time. The report further said that Tantri was clearly aware of the fact that the repair work of the valuable properties of the Devaswom should be done within the temple premises itself and should not be taken outside the temple as per the Travancore Devaswom manual.

The prosecution alleged that Tantri was involved in a conspiracy to hand over the gold-plated copper plates on the sculptures on both sides of the shrine and the pillar plates on the south and north sides of the temple to Potty, causing unjust profit to the other accused and loss to the Travancore Devaswom. 

The bail plea submitted by Tantri's counsel, B Raman Pillai, Sujesh Menon, and C D Anil stated that all the accusations were belatedly fabricated to falsely implicate Kandararu Rajeevaru. It said the investigating agency was trying to create a diversion by linking Tantri to Potty, thereby countering Potty's close links to various VIPs and political leaders, including Ministers. 

According to the bail plea, the accusation that Tantri should have pointed out the provisions of the manual to the Devaswom board is fallacious. "While inventing such a false accusation, the investigating agency conveniently shut its eyes to the fact that the prosecution case itself is that pursuant to the conspiracy hatched by the TDB officials, the order authorising the removal of the encasings was issued," the bail plea noted.