PATHANAMTHITTA: The vigilance wing of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) has recovered the peedam (pedestal) of the dwarapalaka idols of Sabarimala temple from Thiruvananthapuram, six years after it went missing, officials said on Sunday.
A team led by the TDB vigilance and security SP Sunil Kumar V traced the peedam to the house of a relative of Unnikrishnan Potti, who had sponsored the gold-plating of the pedestal and idols, at Pulimathu in Venjaramoodu on Saturday.
Following the Global Ayyappa Sangamam, Potti had kicked up a row when he told the media that the peedam was missing.
Consequently, the Kerala High Court ordered the TDB’s vigilance wing to probe the matter, along with the “reduction” in weight of the plates.
“In 2019, when discolouration was noticed, the sponsor sought permission to have the pedestal moved for maintenance. After the work, it did not go well with the idols, so he took it back again. Later, he claimed it had been returned and kept in the strongroom. However, it was not found there despite a thorough check recently,” a senior cop told TNIE.
“During questioning, we learnt that it had been kept in the house of one of his aides. When media reports of the missing gold-plated dwarapalaka idols surfaced, the aide, who had kept it without much thought, got scared and approached Potti, after which it was shifted to a relative’s house,” said the officer.
TDB chief Prasanth terms conspiracies unfortunate
The police official said, “If it was an unintentional mistake, he could have rectified it. He could have admitted it before the Kerala High Court during any of his appearances. The missing case had put several officials under tremendous pressure.”
The existence of such a peedam came to light recently after the HC, upon noticing a reduction in the weight of the gold-cladded copper plates of the idols, ordered an investigation. Potti then revealed he had also sponsored a gold-plated peedam when the plates of the dwarapalaka idols were removed and taken for plating works in 2019.
Officials confirmed that the recovered peedam has been shifted to Sabarimala and a detailed report will be filed before the HC on Monday.
TDB president P S Prasanth also confirmed the recovery and said more details could not be revealed as the case is sub judice. He said it is unfortunate that conspiracies were being hatched to defame the TDB.
‘A mistake but not deliberate’
Unnikrishnan Potti told TNIE that the peedam was taken by one of his aides for maintenance. “As Covid was at its peak, the aide kept the peedam at his house. Since the TDB did not ask for it, I forgot about it. In 2024, when the maintenance work came up, I asked my aide to mail the board saying we would add gold to other old parts of the deity in the strongroom.
Neither of us realised the pedestal was still with us. Later, when the court pulled up the board over reduction of gold in the dwarapalaka and media reports followed, my aide, a father of two girls, got scared that he may face theft charges. He even considered suicide. To protect him, I kept the idol. Though not deliberate, it was a mistake,” he said.