THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: If the Special Investigation Team (SIT) finds any foreign link in the Sabarimala gold theft case, the Kerala High Court may hand over the further investigation to the CBI. The SIT is currently probing the case based on the allegation made by Ramesh Chennithala that gold sheets from the sanctum were taken out of the country, resulting in a Rs 500-crore fraud. The allegations point toward an international antiquities mafia.

The SIT suspects that after stealing the original gold sheets from the sanctum, the accused replaced them with copper sheets coated in gold. To confirm this, the age and authenticity of the current gold sheets are being tested at the VSSC lab. The High Court had earlier expressed doubt about whether the sheets currently in the temple are original. In

See Full Page