Former Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) commissioner N. Vasu was on Tuesday arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the High Court to investigate the misappropriation of gold-plated copper casings covering the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple’s stone carvings and sculptures.
Mr. Vasu had served as commissioner of the TDB before being appointed its president.
Officials said Mr. Vasu’s arrest pertains to a second case registered against the suspects, including Unnikrishnan Potti, the prime accused.
The case concerns the TDB assenting to Mr. Potti’s offer to restore the gold-copper alloy door frames of the sanctum sanctorum to their original sheen, free of cost.
Officials said Mr. Vasu allegedly could not explain plausibly why he had reportedly insisted on, or allowed, TDB officials to “miscategorise” the gilded panels as made of pure copper when the temple custodians dismantled the casings and handed them over to Mr. Potti purportedly for restoration in 2019.
The SIT also reportedly found fault with Mr. Vasu for allegedly failing to ensure the presence of the temple smith and other auditors when the panels, donated to the temple by industrialist Vijay Mallya in 1998, were disassembled for refurbishment.
The SIT had earlier called on Mr. Vasu and recorded his statement. Investigators reportedly cross-checked Mr. Vasu’s version of events with the statements of three indicted TDB officials — Murari Babu, K. Sudheesh Kumar and K.S. Baiju — and found it wanting.
Officials said the SIT’s primary case was that the TDB-level miscategorisation of the gilded encasings as made of pure copper was patently false, possibly facilitating the alleged pilferage.
The SIT also reportedly suspects that the TDB’s “wilful misstatement” was central to an alleged and well-entrenched conspiratorial plot to smelt the panels for the gold or to replicate the originals in a cheaper alloy, possibly to sell the authentic gilded casings to wealthy collectors or to charter them at considerable rent to businesspersons and celebrities for private worship.
Officials said the SIT had also questioned Mr. Vasu regarding an email from Mr. Potti requesting the Devaswom Commissioner’s approval to donate “leftover gold” from the restoration process to a bride from a low-income family, suggesting possible tampering with the original panels.
The SIT had kept Mr. Vasu’s arrest under wraps for several hours. Plainclothes officers escorted Mr. Vasu to General Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram for a mandatory medical examination before producing him at the designated magistrate court in Ranni, Pathanamthitta.
The government had earlier nominated Mr. Vasu, a lawyer by training, to the Vigilance Tribunal. Later, the administration nominated him as the Devaswom commissioner and TDB president.
Officials said the TDB president in 2019, when the alleged crime occurred, was among those indicted in the SIT’s FIR filed in the Ranni magistrate’s court.
However, so far, the SIT has not named Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leader K. Padmakumar, who held the TDB presidency at the time. Mr. Padmakumar, like Mr. Vasu earlier, had publicly professed his innocence and denied any wrongdoing.
Given the confidentiality clause mandated by the High Court, the SIT was tight-lipped about whether the probe had reached Mr. Padmakumar and other TDB officials.
Published – November 11, 2025 07:45 pm IST
