TDB questions Unnikrishnan Potti over misuse of Sabarimala artefacts for ‘private worship’

The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) vigilance wing questioned Unnikrishnan Potti, as a part of its ongoing investigation into alleged misappropriation and suspected misuse of Sabarimala Ayyappa temple artefacts for personal worship on the residences of rich cinema celebrities and businesspersons in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

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The TDB had contracted Mr Potti, a well-connected priest who sometimes labored part-time on the Sabarimala temple and moved in excessive social circles, to revive the gold-plated overlays overlaying the Ayyappa shrine’s historical stone carvings and sculptures in 2019.

Subsequently, Mr Potti, with the TDB’s permission, eliminated the panels from the temple for restoration at a agency in Chennai.

Officers mentioned the continued vigilance probe notably coated the restoration of two “gold-plated coverings reported lacking from Sabarimala” from the residence of Mr. Potti’s sister in Thiruvananthapuram final month.

The unit famous an “incriminating oddity” in TDB officers certifying the gilded panels earmarked for restoration in 2019 as fabricated from pure copper.

Officers mentioned the vigilance wing additionally reportedly questioned Mr Potti over the four-month delay in depositing the panels taken out of the temple in 2019 for restoration and what transpired through the interval.

Officers mentioned the vigilance is inspecting whether or not Mr Potti misused the temple property for “non-public poojas” based mostly on 2019 video footage and images which have gone viral on social and standard media. It’s also inspecting whether or not Mr Potti or others had used the poojas for personal fund assortment and private profiteering.

Furthermore, the unit can be re-examining the alleged four-kilogram discount within the weight of the metals returned to the temple by Mr Potti in 2019 and why the restoration firm in Chennai issued the 40-year guarantee for the refurbished temple panels in Mr Potti’s identify as a substitute of naming the TDB as the unique purchaser.

Notably, the guarantee in Mr Potti’s identify had constrained the TDB in August 2025 to hunt his companies for restore, regardless of cautionary purple flags raised by the vigilance wing in 2019.

TDB President P. S. Prasanth clarified on Saturday that the Board had transported the panels overlaying the stone sculptures flanking the doorway to the sanctum sanctorum underneath police escort to Chennai for restore. “The TDB had summoned Mr Potti to Chennai and didn’t entrust the panels with him because it occurred in 2019. There was no discount in weight (38 kg) within the gold-plated (387 sovereigns) panels”, he mentioned.

Mr Potti, who emerged after 4 hours of questioning on the TDB headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, advised reporters that he was the sufferer of a media witch-hunt and was harmless of the fees “journalists” had levelled in opposition to him.