THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Special Investigation Team appointed by the High Court made the former governing body of the Travancore Devaswom Board, of which CPM leader A Padmakumar was the president, an accused in the Sabarimala gold theft case. With this, Padmakumar and the then board members K.P. Shankaradas and N. Vijayakumar will have to face police action.

Their names have not been mentioned in the FIR. The governing body is eighth in the list of accused. Shankaradas is a representative of the CPI, and Vijayakumar is a representative of the CPM. They were accused of stealing gold from the door frame of the sanctum sanctorum. They have not been accused of theft from the Dwarapalaka sculptures.

The decision compounded the headache for the LDF government, as most of the accused are from th

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