Sabarimala gold theft: Kerala court grants bail to prime accused Unnikrishnan Potti

A vigilance court in Kerala's Kollam on Thursday granted bail to Unnikrishnan Potti, the prime accused in the Sabarimala gold misappropriation case. .The order was passed by the Enquiry Commissioner and Special Judge Mohit CS after noting that the Special Investigation Team failed to file chargesheets within the prescribed 90 days under the law thereby, entitling Potti to statutory bail.This is the second case relating to the loss of gold from the door frames of the Sreekovil (sanctum sanctorum) at the Sabarimala temple.Earlier, Potti had secured a similar statutory bail in a connected case involving misappropriation of gold form the Dwarapalaka (guardian deity) idols..Potti, who was arrested in October 2025, would be released from custody now..The two cases pertains to the gold missing from the temple's copper plates coverings on the Dwarapalaka idols and the door frames at the Sabarimala temple.It was alleged that due to irregularities by Travancore Devaswom Board officials, Potti had secured permission to sponsor repair works for the items, enabling him to misappropriate the temple gold of nearly 4 kg from the same.Several kilograms of gold was found to be missing when the plates were measured after repair work and later, some of the gold was allegedly recovered by the authorities from Potti's sister's house.An SIT was constituted on the directions of the Kerala High Court and Potti was booked for offences under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant), 466 (forgery of court or public records) and 467 (forgery of valuable security), read with Section 34 (common intention) of the IPC, along with Section 13(1)(a) of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018. The Enforcement Directorate is also conducting a money laundering probe in connection with the gold misappropriation..Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.