Pathanamthitta- The SIT probing the alleged disappearance of gold from the Sabarimala temple on Saturday arrested former executive officer Sudheesh Kumar. Sources said Kumar, who served as the executive officer of the hill shrine in 2019, was arrested after questioning at the Crime Branch office in Thiruvananthapuram.
He is accused of concealing the fact that the idols of the Dwarpalaka (guardian deity) were gold-plated and instead recorded them as copper sheets in the official documents of the temple.
Sources said Kumar was associated with Sabarimala since the 1990s and was aware that the sanctum sanctorum, including the Dwarpalaka idols, had been gold-plated during 1998-99.
However, when the doorplates were handed over to the main accused Unnikrishnan for gold plating in 2019, Kumar allegedly documented them as copper plates, which enabled the accused to later remove the existing gold coating, an official said. He is the third person to be arrested in the case, after Unnikrishnan and former administrative officer B Murari Babu. Kumar will be produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate court later, officials said.