VD Satheesan slams Kerala govt over CPI(M) leader Padmakumar's 14-day judicial custody in Sabarimala gold theft case

Kozhikode (Kerala) [India], November 23 (ANI): Congress MLA and the Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan on Sunday slammed the CPI(M)-led Kerala government after the party leader and former Travancore Devaswom Board President A Padmakumar was remanded to judicial custody for 14 days in the Sabarimala gold theft case.
Speaking to ANI, Satheesan said that the CPI(M) earlier tried to distance itself from the controversy, but now the court is 'suspecting' the Kerala government in the case.
"Initially, the CPI(M) Secretary and other members defended that it was only done by Unnikrishnan Potti (prime accused). The opposition insisted that apart from him, other board members appointed by CPI(M) Ministers, responsible for Devaswom, were involved in this gold pilferage," Satheesan said.
Unnikrishnan Potti, the prime accused, was reportedly taken into custody by the SIT on October 17.
"The HC and police team now found that they are all culprits and are going to jail. The HC directed the SIT they constituted to submit the report only to the HC, not the government, which clears that the court suspects the government also," the Congress leader added.
Earlier on Thursday, Padmakumar was remanded to judicial custody for 14 days by the Kollam Vigilance Court in the Sabarimala gold theft case. He was arrested the same day by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Kerala Police.
He was the Devaswom Board president in 2019, when the alleged gold theft took place. The arrest followed the SIT questioning him for several hours at the State Police Headquarters.
The SIT probing the case on Friday conducted a raid at his residence in Aranmula. Investigators suspect that the conspiracy behind the gold heist may have been hatched at his residence.
The Sabarimala gold controversy involves alleged irregularities concerning the gold plating work at the Sabarimala temple. This situation arose from a donation of 30.3 kilograms of gold and 1,900 kilograms of copper by industrialist Vijay Mallya in 1998, intended for cladding the sanctum sanctorum and wooden carvings of the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala. (ANI)