Untold story of Sabarimala gold door’s journey from temple to actor’s home

Mangalore Today News Network/ NDTV

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 10, 2025: An 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. 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. 

But the consignment did not arrive in Chennai until August 29 -- 39 days later -- and when Smart Creations recorded the panels, their weight had fallen to about 38.25 kg, a loss of roughly 4.54 kg. Those facts lie at the centre of the legal and political storm. 

The story of those 39 days is more than a delay on the highway. The panels were not taken straight to the workshop and back. Instead, the artefacts were, at various points, reportedly taken to a private temple in Kottayam, to temples in Andhra Pradesh and Ayyappa shrine at Sriramapuram in Bengaluru; perhaps most strikingly, the panels were also brought to the house of Malayalam actor Jayaram for a private puja, before ultimately being returned to Sabarimala on September 11, 2019. 

Smart Creations, in a Facebook post, stated: "The life-size idols of the Dwarapalakas are situated aside the inner sanctum doors. The Kavachams were consecrated at the Chennai Home of Padmashree Actor Shri Jayaram. They were then transported to Sabarimala and installed amidst Pujas and rituals with the divine songs of Ayyappa." 

The Key Questions

Was it the same door that left Sabarimala that reached Chennai Smart Creations? If yes, what happened to the gold and why was it copper when it reached Chennai?

Who was responsible for the gold and the door safekeeping?
What is it now? Is it fully gold or gold-plated copper?

Those questions, now being pressed by litigants and political opponents alike, remain largely unanswered. Whether the panels that returned were the original pieces and, if so, what explains the inexplicable loss of nearly four-and-a-half kilos of gold during the excursion. 

The Vijay Mallya Connection

The public record, and multiple reports, say the first major donation of gold to Sabarimala’s sanctum came in 1998 from businessman Vijay Mallya. Mallya donated around 30 kg of gold to the sanctum sanctorum. A year later, 800 grammes were added for the gold cladding of the doors.  

The High Court and vigilance reports have repeatedly returned to the question of how much of that 1998 donation remains accounted for and whether records were properly maintained. 

A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court -- Justices Raja Vijayaraghavan V and KV Jayakumar -- has directed that the matter be investigated, ordered seizure of relevant files and asked the Travancore Devaswom Board’s (TDB) vigilance officer to file a sealed report. The state government has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by ADGP H Venkatesh. The SIT includes officers drawn from district police stations and the cyber cell and has been instructed to follow the High Court’s directions. 

The Political Flashpoint

Opposition parties and the BJP have seized on the revelations as proof of mismanagement and alleged theft. Hundreds of BJP workers staged protest marches across Kerala; in Kozhikode a march led by former state BJP president K Surendran was met with barricades and water cannon as protesters attempted to press to the collector’s office. 

"They looted crores from the Thiruvananthapuram gold smuggling case and other airport-based gold smuggling cases. Now they are looting Devaswom treasures, like they recently did in Sabarimala. We are demanding a free and fair inquiry. The BJP demands that this case be handed over to the CBI," Surendran said. 

In the Kerala Assembly, the issue has repeatedly disrupted proceedings. The Leader of the Opposition, VD Satheesan, told colleagues that the Congress would maintain protest action until ministers and officials involved were held to account. Opposition members have demanded the resignation of the Devaswom minister and insisted on a central agency probe; the ruling front has urged patience for the court-supervised inquiry while also defending procedural and institutional steps taken in the past. 

’Leftover Gold’ 

A 2019 email from the sponsor Unnikrishnan Potti revealed that he sought permission to "use" any leftover gold for personal ends, including a wedding. The Kerala High Court described that revelation as "deeply disturbing" in open hearings. The TDB has said it acted within rules when it handed the panels to the sponsor and that a preliminary vigilance check had been undertaken.

What is now in the temple? The TDB has returned panels to Sabarimala after the Chennai work, but the High Court has kept the matter under close supervision, seized relevant registers and left open the question of whether the panels currently installed are the originals, replicas or copper shells re-plated in gold. Investigations and flings point to inconsistencies in inventories, transport documentation and custody lists -- gaps the SIT will be obliged to explain.

The Kerala High Court today directed the state police to register a criminal case in connection with "misappropriation of gold" from the "side frame or lintels" of the shrine. The High Court has ordered the SIT to probe and file its report within six weeks.