THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Sabarimala gold theft case on Thursday told the Kollam Vigilance Court that gold is missing from more temple artefacts.
In a report submitted to the court, the SIT revealed that gold is missing from the images of Siva and Vyali roopam in the door frames of the sanctum sanctorum.
The SIT also informed the court that the investigative team has not yet been able to fully recover the gold stolen from the temple. The team informed that only 584 grams of the gold were recovered, which is less than what was originally stolen from the temple.
110 grams and 474 grams of gold were recovered from Smart Creations in Chennai and Roddam Jewellery in Ballari respectively, the SIT told the court.
The Chennai firm took the gold as fee for the extraction and electroplating works, while a portion of the remaining gold was sent to Roddam jewellery.
Roddam is owned by Govardhan, who is currently in judicial custoday.
The gold seized from the two jewellery shops have been sent to the VSSC for testing.
Only after receiving test results will the SIT be able to confirm whether they were indeed extracted from the gold-plated sheets.
If there is a mismatch, then suspicions regarding the gold being handed over to rackets engaged in antique trafficking may prove to be true.