Thiruvananthapuram: Former Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president P S Prasanth and former board member A Ajikumar were arrested and later remanded in judicial custody on Thursday after being produced before a court in the Sabarimala gold theft case. The two were interrogated by an SIT headed by crime branch SP S Sashidharan.Prasanth was taken into custody from his residence at Enikkara in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday morning, while Ajikumar, a Kayamkulam native, was detained while travelling to the capital. Prasanth had earlier indicated in a Facebook post that he expected to be arrested. Both will undergo medical examination before being produced before a court.The latest development is linked to alleged irregularities in sending the gold plates from the Dwarapalaka sculptures at Sabarimala to Chennai-based Smart Creations for re-plating. The SIT alleges the plates were removed from the shrine without informing either the high court-appointed special commissioner or the high court’s devaswom bench.In a report submitted to the court, SIT said the board headed by Prasanth in 2025 arranged the re-plating to conceal a large-scale gold theft that allegedly occurred in 2019 or earlier.Prasanth has denied the allegation, maintaining that his board was the one that exposed the 2019 theft and that any procedural lapses were merely technical. The SIT has rejected this claim.The probe has already led to the questioning of several former TDB officials, including tantri Kandararu Rajeevaru and former board presidents Padmakumar and N Vasu. Some were arrested earlier and later released on bail.
