A Kerala court on Tuesday granted four-day custody of B Murari Babu, a former Devaswom administrative officer, to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Sabarimala gold loss case. The decision followed the SIT’s plea for custody, as Babu is implicated in gold-related theft from the temple.
Babu is the second accused in the case concerning the loss of gold from the ‘Dwarapalaka’ idols and is the sixth accused in the alleged gold loss from the sanctum sanctorum door frame. The investigation, led by the SIT, has intensified and is simultaneously managing the case against the primary accused, Bengaluru-based businessman Unnikrishnan Potty, whose custody ends on October 30.
During the probe, the SIT traveled to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to collect evidence and returned to Kerala on October 26. Last week, the team conducted searches at the jewellery shop owned by Govardhan, linked to gold-plating work funded by Potty, as well as Potty’s Bengaluru residence and the Smart Creation office in Chennai, seizing substantial amounts of gold.
The ongoing investigation aims to trace the full network involved in the Sabarimala gold loss and recover the missing assets.
