Overview
- The Kerala High Court has set up a confidential SIT led by ADGP H. Venkatesh, with IPS officer S. Sasidharan heading operations, and ordered a report within a month with no media briefings.
- TDB Vigilance flagged prima-facie misappropriation in an interim report, and retired Justice K. T. Sankaran has been appointed to inventory and appraise temple valuables.
- For a third straight day, the Assembly saw protests, a scuffle with watch-and-ward staff and a UDF boycott, as the chief minister decried a political ‘smokescreen’ and promised strict action.
- The Travancore Devaswom Board suspended officer B. Murari Babu over a 2019 memo that described gold-clad items as copper, and a dwarapalaka pedestal was recovered from a relative of sponsor Unnikrishnan Potty.
- The Sabarimala Ayyappa Seva Samajam sought a CBI inquiry, while the government maintained the High Court–supervised police probe will ensure accountability.