KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Wednesday ordered a probe into the “glaring and unexplained reduction” of 4.541 kg in the combined weight of the gold-cladded copper plates of dwarapalaka idols of Sabarimala temple and the ‘peedams’ on which they stood when they were weighed a month apart in 2019.
Expressing shock over the discrepancy, a division bench comprising Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan V and Justice K V Jayakumar ordered the chief vigilance and security officer (SP), Travancore Devaswom HQ, to carry out a comprehensive probe and file a report within three weeks.
“These irregularities are of the gravest order, striking at the very core of the integrity and transparency that must guide the administration of a temple of such sanctity and public trust,” said the bench, while hearing a suo motu case taken up on the Sabarimala special commissioner’s report that said the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) sent the plates to Smart Creations, Chennai, earlier this month for repair without informing either him or the HC.
Perusing the documents it had sought from the chief vigilance and security officer last week, the bench said the mahazar dated July 19, 2019, recorded that Unnikrishnan Potty (a devotee from Bengaluru who sponsored the repair and was impleaded as a respondent in the suo motu case) obtained nod to undertake fresh gold-plating of the idols on his own sponsorship.
The mahazar recorded that 12 gold-cladded copper plates weighing 25.4kg, were entrusted to Potty. On July 20, 2019, the two peedams, weighing 17.4kg in total, were handed over to him, it said.
HC: Glaring, unexplained reduction
The combined recorded weight of the items was 42.8 kg, the bench said. “We are shocked to note that the mahazar of August 29, 2019 records the total weight as merely 38.258 kg. There is a glaring and unexplained reduction of 4.541kg. The only component susceptible to such diminution is the gold cladding itself,” the bench said.
The court said after the agency completed the re-plating, yet another mahazar recorded the weight as 38.653 kg, which was still lower. It said the latest probe should include the “abrupt and clandestine entrustment” of the gold-cladded copper plates to Potty without prior intimation on September 8, 2025, and also examine in depth his role, involvement and objectives in purporting to act as a sponsor.
The probe team should also ascertain and report whether a second set of dwarapalakas and peedams is retained in the strong room, as indicated in the communications of Unnikrishnan Potty, said the bench.