Sabarimala Gold Theft: Kerala Court Grants Bail To Senior Thantri Kandararu Rajeevaru

The Court of the Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge, Kollam on Wednesday (February 18) granted bail to Rajeev Thantri @ Kandararu Rajeevaru in the Sabarimala gold theft case. A detailed order is awaited.

Dr. Mohit C.S., Special Judge passed the order.

Thantri Rajeev is arrayed as the 13th accused in the case relating to the misappropriation of gold from the doorframes of the Sreekovil in the temple. He is also accused in the Dwarapalaka idols case and arrayed as the 16th accused there.

The prosecution allegation is that the accused persons, knowing that the Dwarapalaka idols and doorframes were gold-cladded, entered into a conspiracy and submitted a false report that these were merely copper plates and intended to be gold-plated. They then misappropriated the gold from the idols and the doorframes.

Thantri Rajeev was arrested by the Special Investigation Team early last month and has been in custody since then.

He is accused of the offences under Sections 120B [Conspiracy], 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.

Presently, Unnikrishnan Potty, Murari Babu, N. Vasu and S. Sreekumar are the accused who are out on bail. Last week, the High Court dismissed Smart Creations CEO Pankaj Bhandari's plea challenging his arrest as illegal. The High Court had also denied bail to Jeweller Roddam Govardhanan, A. Padmakumar and other accused in the cases.

Case No: Crl.MP 17/2026