Who Is Unnikrishnan Potti, Accused In Sabarimala Gold Theft Case

Unnikrishnan Potti, the prime accused in the Sabarimala gold theft case, is a priest-turned-businessman from Pulimath near Kilimanoor, Thiruvananthapuram. Once a junior priest at the Sabarimala temple, Potti earlier assisted his father at the Pulimath Devi Temple and served in several temples, including the Sriramapura Ayyappa Temple in Bengaluru, before joining Sabarimala.

Now settled in Bengaluru, he is believed to have acted as a mediator for wealthy businessmen making offerings to the temple and is suspected of engaging in money lending. He was expelled from his priestly post in 2004 after serving as an assistant priest at the Srirampura temple.

Authorities are now examining how Potti, who has no regular source of income, acquired substantial funds and property. His income tax records from 2017 to 2025 show no steady business earnings. However, ₹10.85 lakh was recently deposited into the account of Kamakshi Enterprises (Social and Community Service).

The controversy surfaced after a report submitted to the Kerala High Court revealed that the gold-plated copper sheets of the Dwarapalaka idols had been taken to Chennai for repairs and electroplating without the required permission from the Special Commissioner (Sabarimala) or the court.

The Devaswom Vigilance report also reveals that expenses Potti claimed to have personally funded were actually paid by others. The gold-plated door he was credited with replacing was financed by Govardhan, a businessman from Ballari, Karnataka, while the gold-plating of the shrine’s copper mat was funded by Ajikumar, a Malayali businessman based in Bengaluru.

The Travancore Devaswom Board’s vigilance wing launched an inquiry after procedural lapses were detected during the 2019 removal of the gold plating from the idols for repair work in Chennai. A division bench of the High Court later noted that the gold-plated copper covers weighed 4.541 kilograms less after the process managed by Potti.

Further suspicion arose when a missing gold-plated pedestal, which Potti had reported lost, was later found at his sister’s house. The Devaswom Vigilance discovered that one of Potti’s staff members had kept the item until the scandal became public.

According to the vigilance report, in August 2019, Potti handed over 14 pieces of gold-clad Dwarapalaka copper plates to a contractor, Smart Creations, instructing them to reuse extracted and leftover gold. In September 2019, 14 gold-plated copper plates and a gold certificate showing 394.9 grams of gold were returned to him.

Investigators allege that Potti colluded with Devaswom Board officials, misrepresented gold-plated door panels as copper, and siphoned off gold during the repair process. The SIT’s first arrest in the case supports the findings of the Devaswom Vigilance probe.

The report suggests that Potti intended to defraud the Devaswom Board by claiming two kilograms of gold from the renovation works and calls for identifying the actual sponsors behind these projects.

The Allegations and Case Details

Potti is the prime accused in two criminal cases registered in Thiruvananthapuram:

• Irregularities in the gold-cladded panels of the Dwarapalaka (guardian) idols of Sabarimala.

• Misappropriation of gold from the side frames and lintel of the temple’s sanctum sanctorum (Sreekovil).

The Kerala High Court has appointed former judge K.T. Sankaran to conduct a full appraisal of the temple’s valuables, underscoring the seriousness of the suspected irregularities at one of India’s most important pilgrimage sites.

The scandal has triggered a political storm in Kerala. The opposition Congress-led UDF has accused the ruling CPI(M)-led LDF government of complicity and demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe. Opposition leader V.D. Satheesan alleged that the “gold looting” took place with government connivance, while UDF convenor Adoor Prakash formally called for a CBI investigation.