Sabarimala gold theft case: Senior officer suspended over copper mistake
The Sabarimala temple gold theft case just took a new turn—B Murari Babu, a senior officer with the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), has been suspended after he wrongly recorded the gold-plated items as copper sheets back in June 2019, a lapse connected to the subsequent discovery that 4.54kg of gold was missing.
The gold-plated panels and pedestals, sent for restoration to Chennai that year, came back lighter by several kilos, sparking concerns and a lot of public attention.
The case has been mired in controversy for years
After the weight loss was noticed, the Kerala High Court stepped in and ordered a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to dig deeper.
The TDB says there was no intentional theft—just serious administrative mistakes.
Things heated up again this year when some of the missing items were found at devotee Unnikrishnan Potti's sister's home during further repairs.
The SIT is now looking closely at how things went wrong and whether more lapses or misreporting are involved.