The Special Investigation Team submitted a detailed report to the Kerala High Court on January 7, 2026, asserting that the audacious theft of gold from the revered Sabarimala temple constituted a premeditated segment of an extensive criminal conspiracy orchestrated by a network of accused individuals intent on systematically dismantling and misappropriating precious gold-clad artifacts from the sanctum sanctorum.

Central to the plot were Karnataka-based jeweller Roddam Pandurangaiah Naga Govardhan, former Travancore Devaswom Board president A Padmakumar, priest Unnikrishnan Potti, and accomplice Pankaj Bhandari, who allegedly collaborated to strip gold from multiple sacred copper plates—including those illustrating Dasavatharam and Rasi symbols, upper door frames, Prabhamandalam elements with Sivaroopam and Vyaliroopam motifs—demonstrating utter disregard for their irreplaceable religious sanctity and artistic heritage.

Telecommunication records scrutinized by the SIT uncovered clandestine gatherings in Bengaluru during October 2025 among Govardhan, Potti, and Bhandari precisely when the case was under High Court review, interpreted as calculated post-offense maneuvers to suppress evidence of their 2019 misdeeds, compounded by glaring procedural violations such as unescorted transport, absent weight verifications, and missing warranty documentation in the Devaswom Board's name.

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The investigation sharply criticized Travancore Devaswom Board officials for egregious lapses amounting to official misconduct, including failure to monitor restoration activities at Chennai's Smart Creations workshop, omission of weight recordings upon reinstallation, and neglect in updating registers, actions that directly facilitated the accused's ability to extract and divert the divine gold belonging eternally to Lord Ayyappa.

Rejecting Govardhan's defense of having restituted equivalent gold quantities through transfers to unrelated entities rather than the Board itself, the SIT maintained that the sacred cladding possesses transcendent divine and aesthetic worth beyond monetary equivalence, further bolstered by revelations that associated Dwrapalaka and pillar plates were routed to a Hyderabad goldsmith who explicitly informed Govardhan of their gold content prior to the orchestrated stripping process.

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