Thiruvananthapuram: Former Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) member A Ajikumar has been granted bail in the Sabarimala gold theft case, while the bail plea of former board president P S Prasanth was rejected by Kollam vigilance court.The court granted bail to Ajikumar after taking into consideration his health condition. However, it observed that there was prima facie evidence of Prasanth’s involvement in the alleged offence.Ajikumar and Prasanth were arrested on July 23 in connection with the alleged theft of gold from the Dwarapalaka sculptures at Sabarimala temple.According to the special investigation team (SIT), TDB headed by Prasanth in 2025 had sent the gold-plated Dwarapalaka panels to Smart Creations in Chennai for re-plating. The SIT alleged that the move was part of an attempt to conceal the alleged gold theft that took place in 2019.The investigation found that the panels were subsequently handed over to the firm again for gold plating without informing the high court or obtaining its prior permission. Prasanth had maintained that the failure to obtain prior court permission was only a technical lapse.However, the SIT rejected the explanations by the accused and arrested them, citing allegations of conspiracy and attempts to cover up the irregularities.Prasanth and Ajikumar are the 17th and 18th accused, respectively, in the case. According to the SIT report, the two allegedly issued a devaswom board order that helped conceal offences committed by other accused.The SIT alleged that the order facilitated the extraction of additional gold from the support-base panels of the Dwarapalaka sculptures, thereby providing undue financial benefits to the first accused, Unnikrishnan Potti, and the 12th accused, Pankaj Bhandari.The court’s decision comes as the SIT continues its investigation into the circumstances surrounding the removal, re-plating and handling of the Sabarimala gold panels, as well as the alleged role of the accused in the case.
