Sabarimala Gold Theft: Kerala Court Grants Statutory Bail To Smart Creations CEO Pankaj Bhandari & Jeweller Roddam

The Court of the Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge, Kollam on Thursday (March 19) granted statutory bail to Smart Creations CEO Pankaj Bhandari and Jeweller Roddam Pandurangaiah Govardhan, who are arrayed in the Sabarimala gold theft case.

A detailed order is awaited.

Dr. C.S. Mohit, Special Judge, allowed the bail pleas of Bhandari and Govardhanan in the cases relating to misappropriation of gold from the door frames and the Dwarapalaka idols in the Sabarimala temple.

Bhandari and Govardhan are respectively arrayed as 12th and 13th accused in the Dwarapalaka case. They are arrayed as 9th and 10th in the door frames case.

They are accused of the offences under Sections 403 [Dishonest misappropriation of property], 406 [Criminal breach of trust], 409 [Criminal breach of trust by public servant], 466 [Forgery of record of Court or of public register] and 467 [Forgery of valuable security] r/w Section 34 [Common intention] of the Indian Penal Code along with the offence under Section 13(1)(a) of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018 in the FIRs before the Crime Branch.

Govardhan and Bhandari were both arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on December 19, 2025 and now, they have been granted statutory bail by the Special Court since the final reports in the cases have not been filed within 90 days of arrest.

Govardhan's bail plea before the High Court was dismissed in January after it was observing that further interrogation was necessary to unearth what happening to the remaining gold in addition to the 474.960 grams recovered from him by the SIT.

Bhandari had moved a plea before the High Court challenging his arrest by the SIT as illegal but the same was dismissed.

Case No: Crl.MP 203/2026, Crl.MP 204/2026, Crl.MP 207/2026 and Crl.MP 208/2026