Sabarimala Gold Theft: Kerala Court Grants Statutory Bail To Prime Accused Unnikrishnan Potty

The Court of the Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge, Kollam on Thursday (February 5) granted bail to Unnikrishnan Potty, former assistant Santhi at Sabarimala, and the prime accused in the Sabarimala gold theft case.Sri. Mohit C.S., Special Judge, passed the order granting him statutory bail. A detailed order is awaited.He was arrested in October 2025 in relation to the cases. Potty was already granted statutory bail in the case relating to theft of gold from the Dwarapalaka idols on January 21. Now, he has been granted statutory bail in the case relating to the misappropriation of gold from the doorframes of the Sreekovil of Sabarimala.He has been granted statutory bail since the Special Investigation Agency (SIT) did not file the chargesheet in the case within 90 days of the arrest.The prosecution allegation was that the accused persons, knowing that the Dwarapalaka idols were gold-cladded, entered into a conspiracy and submitted a false report that these were merely copper plates and intended to be gold-plated. It is alleged that the accused worked together in misappropriating gold from the Dwarapalaka idols and doorframes placed in Sabarimala temple.Unnikrishnan Potty is the sponsor who is alleged to have orchestrated the crime and transported the gold-cladded items to Smart Creations in Chennai in the name of gold plating.He is 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], 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 and Section 13(1)(a) of the PC (Amendment) Act, 2018.Last week, the Special Judge had granted bail to the 6th accused in the Dwarapalaka idols case and the former Administrative Officer of the Travancore Devaswom Board, S. Sreekumar.Earlier, the Court had granted statutory bail to Murari Babu. The High Court had earlier criticised the SIT for the delay in the filing of the chargesheet.Case No: Crl.MP 82/2026

Sabarimala Gold Theft: Kerala Court Grants Statutory Bail To Prime Accused Unnikrishnan Potty

K. Salma Jennath

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