ED raids 21 spots in Sabarimala temple gold theft case
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) just raided 21 places across Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu as part of a major gold theft and money laundering probe tied to the Sabarimala temple.
Investigators found that gold-plated copper plates from temple idols were sent for repairs beginning in 2019 (the ED says misrepresentation occurred over 2019-2025), but things didn't quite add up when they came back.
What went missing—and who's involved?
Turns out, the idols lost about 4.5kg of gold during those repairs—gold that had originally been donated to the temple.
The missing gold was allegedly extracted through chemical processes at private facilities in Chennai and Karnataka and some items were taken to a private firm based in Chennai and were reportedly re-plated or replaced with lower-quality gold or freshly plated copper replicas and searches were later conducted at the premises of a Ballari-based gold trader.
So far, police have arrested 11 people—including the chief priest—and the Kerala High Court has ordered another inspection to get to the bottom of it all.
The ED is now following money trails and looking into shady transactions connected to this case.