The ongoing investigation into the high-profile Sabarimala gold theft case has escalated into a fierce political clash in Kerala, resulting in the custody of senior Congress leader N Subrahmanian for sharing a contentious social media photograph linking Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to the prime accused.

Subrahmanian, a prominent member of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee Political Affairs Committee, was detained by Kozhikode Chevayur police after posting an image on Facebook depicting the Chief Minister in apparent close proximity to Unnikrishnan Potti, the principal suspect in the theft of several kilograms of gold from the temple's sanctum sanctorum and guardian deity idols.

The Special Investigation Team has uncovered evidence of gold being systematically removed under the pretext of electroplating and renovation works conducted between 2014 and 2019, leading to the arrest of Potti in October following extensive questioning, alongside former Travancore Devaswom Board presidents A Padmakumar and N Vasu.

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The disputed post included a caption from Subrahmanian questioning the nature of the "deep relationship" between Vijayan and Potti, prompting authorities to register a case under Section 192 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and provisions of the Kerala Police Act for allegedly inciting riots and promoting enmity.

While the ruling CPM dismissed the image as an AI-manipulated fabrication derived from official video footage of a public event in August, where Potti was merely present in the background, Subrahmanian defended his action by asserting that the photograph originated from material released by the Chief Minister's Office itself, describing his detention as an effort to stifle opposition voices.

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