Sabarimala Gold Theft: Kerala High Court Denies Pre-Arrest Bail To Former Devaswom Board Officials

The Kerala High Court on Thursday (December 4) denied pre-arrest bail to S. Sreekumar, the former Administrative Officer of the Travancore Devaswom Board, who is arraigned as the 6th accused in the high-profile Sabarimala gold theft case.

The Court also rejected the anticipatory bail plea of TDB's former Secretary, S. Jayasree, who stands arrayed as the 4th accused.

They are accused of the offences under Section 120B [Conspiracy], 403 [Dishonest misappropriation of property], 406 [Criminal breach of trust], 409 [Criminal breach of trust by public servant] and 467 [Forgery of valuable security] r/w Section 34 [Common intention] of the Indian Penal Code in the FIR before the Crime Branch.

The case is being investigated by a Special Investigation Team constituted by the Division Bench of the Court. After the Bench had highlighted the need to look into the larger conspiracy behind the alleged irregularities in the weight of gold from the Dwarapalaka idols and side frames of the Sabarimala temple, the SIT had arraigned many former Devaswom Board officials as accused persons.

Among them, Sreekumar and ex-Secretary S. Jayasree had moved anticipatory bail pleas before the High Court and were granted interim protection from arrest. After hearing the parties in-camera, the Court had reserved its orders.

Justice A. Badharudeen passed the order today, dismissing the bail plea.

A detailed judgment is awaited.

Case No: Bail Appl. 13782/2025 and Bail Appl. 13835/ 2025

Case Title: S. Sreekumar v. State of Kerala and Anr. and S. Jayasree v. State of Kerala and Ors.

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 795

Counsel for the petitioners: Renjith B. Mararar, Gokul Babu S., M. Anil Prasad, Keshavraj Nair, Gaadha Suresh, Viswanath Jayan, Aswin S., Swetha Pandalay H., and R. Ranjanie