00:00This is a story that starts with faith and ends in a fog of gold politics and power.
00:08The Sabri Mala Shrine is hit by a gold scam.
00:11The Kerala High Court, which took up the Sabri Mala missing gold case on its own,
00:15says there is a serious possibility that the Dwarapalaka idol's original gold fleeting was sold and the money misused.
00:23What's going on? Let's unpack.
00:25The allegations are literally many kilos of gold seem to have been siphoned off.
00:31The golden beginning. Back in 1999, when liquor baron Vijay Malaya was still flying high, he made a glittering donation.
00:3830 kilos of gold to the Sabri Mala temple.
00:415 kilos were used to plate the Dwarapalaka idols and 25 kilos went into other temple features.
00:47Now all that plating was done right inside the temple with utmost reverence.
00:52But two decades later, in 2019, a new sponsor appeared, his name, Unnikrishnan Poti.
00:57He got the Travancore Devaswam board's permission to replate the temple's idols at his own expense.
01:03And that is where the story begins to lose its shine.
01:07So who is Unnikrishnan Poti?
01:09Once a junior priest at Sabri Mala, Unnikrishnan Poti rose to power through wealthy devotees, temple projects and political ties,
01:16until whispers of shady deals and misuse of influence surfaced.
01:21When the idols and valuables were sent out for replating, the handover papers described them as copper plates.
01:27No mention of the existing gold.
01:29According to the Indian Express, when the TDB handed the items to Poti for transport to Chennai,
01:34the vigilance officer was not even present.
01:37The idols reached Smart Creations, a jewellery firm in Chennai, 39 days later.
01:43When they came back, 4.54 kilos of gold had vanished.
01:48The TDB looked the other way.
01:50Incredibly, they even gave Poti the 2025 gold replating contract.
01:54This time, Poti pushed for a switch to electroplating, a cheaper method that uses less gold.
01:59The commissioner in charge initially said no, insisting the traditional method be followed.
02:03He also noted that Smart Creations did not even have the tools to remove the old gold plates.
02:09But a month later, after talking to Poti, he changed his mind.
02:13And just like that, the recommendation flipped.
02:16The High Court later noted that the Devasom board broke its own rules.
02:20Repairs like these are supposed to be done at the temple itself.
02:23So once the gold went missing, the politics got gold plated too.
02:27Because when temple gates are guarded by gold, it's not the shine that protects the divine.
02:32It's honesty.
02:33And that's what went missing first.
02:35Tell us what you think.
02:36I'm Manisha Digari.
02:38First things fast.
02:39No.
02:41No.
02:43No.
02:44No.
02:45No.
02:46It's not listed here right now.
02:47No.
02:50No.
02:55No.
03:00No.
03:01No.
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