Thiruvananthapuram:
An NDTV investigation has reconstructed a strikingly irregular chain of custody for a sacred artefact from Kerala’s Sabarimala temple — the gold-clad door panels associated with the Dwarapalaka idols — showing that the pieces were removed in July 2019, travelled across southern India for more than a month and returned with a measurable loss of precious metal.
The disclosure, pieced together from court filings and company records, has triggered a High Court-directed probe.
The “mystery” begins with a routine-sounding restoration job in 2019. According to court documents accessed by NDTV, the gold cladding on the Dwarapalaka idols and door panels was removed and weighed on July 19, 2019 at 42.8 kilogrammes. The following day — July 20, 2019 — the dismantled pieces left Sabarimala in the custody of sponsor Unnikrishnan Potti, bound for Smart Creations, a Chennai firm contracted to do electroplating work.
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