Sabarimala Gold Theft: Kerala High Court Dismisses Smart Creations CEO Pankaj Bhandari's Plea Challenging Arrest As Illegal

The Kerala High Court on Friday (February 13) dismissed the plea preferred by Pankaj Bhandari, CEO of Smart Creations, Chennai, alleging that his arrest as part of the Sabarimala gold theft case was illegal.

Justice A. Badharudeen pronounced the order. A detailed order is awaited.

The prosecution allegation is that Bhandari along with the other accused in the case, including prime accused Unnikrishnan Potty, conspired together to misappropriate gold from the Dwarapalaka idols and the doorframes of the Sreekovil of Sabarimala temple and in furtherance of this, Potty took the gold-cladded items to Smart Creations, which stripped the gold knowing it to belong to the Travancore Devaswom Board.

The Court had heard arguments adduced by the senior counsel appearing for Bhandari as well as that of the Additional Director of Prosecution, and had reserved its verdict a few days back.

Bhandari was arrested on December 19 and has been in custody since. The senior counsel had argued that there was no proper communication of grounds of arrest to Bhandari or his relatives. However, according to him, he was not informed the grounds of arrest. It was further argued that his arrest was not intimated to any of his relatives on the day of his arrest and it was done only the next day via email to his wife.

According to him, since Bhandari did not know Malayalam, being from Tamil Nadu, the copy of the remand report in Malayalam would not be sufficient. Further, the senior counsel told the Court that legal consultation was denied to the accused and he was not represented by a lawyer at the time of his remand, which was conducted in Malayalam.

The ADGP had argued that the grounds of arrest was communicated to him and his staff member Rajasekharan S. on the same day as his arrest. Later, his wife was intimated by email also.

As of now, Unnikrishnan Potty, N. Vasu and Murari Babu have been granted statutory bail by the Court of the Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge, Kollam and out of custody. Last month, the Special Judge had granted regular bail to the 6th accused in the Dwarapalaka idols case and the former Administrative Officer of the Travancore Devaswom Board, S. Sreekumar.

Yesterday, former Thiruvabharanam Commissioner of the Travancore Devaswom Board, K.S. Baiju was granted statutory bail in the case relating to the misappropriation of gold from the door frames of the Sreekovil. However, he remains in custody in the other case relating to the heist of gold from the Dwarapalaka idols.

While hearing the present plea, the Court had orally criticised the Special Investigation Team for its delay in submitting the final report, which has led to some of the accused being released on statutory bail.

The petition is moved by Senior Advocate B. Raman Pillai, Advocates S. Vishnu, V.S. Viswambharan, Naik Chirag Dhananjay, Mathrawala Noopur Vishal, Mahesh Bhanu S., R. Anil, Sujesh Menon V.B., Lilin Lal.

Case No: WP (Crl.) 52/2026

Case Title: Pankaj Bhandari v. State of Kerala and Ors.

Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 97