Pathanamthitta (Kerala) | The gold-clad copper plates of the Dwarapalaka (guardian deity) idols were reinstalled at the Sabarimala temple here on Friday as the shrine opened for the Malayalam month of 'Thulam'.

Around 14 gold-plated copper sheets, brought back from Smart Creations in Chennai after electroplating as directed by the Kerala High Court, were reinstalled by sculptors in the presence of temple priests and Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) officials, including its president, P S Prasanth.

TDB officials said the reinstallation ceremony lasted about an hour, following the temple’s opening at 5 pm.

The plates were placed over the stone Dwarapalaka idols and secured with screws.

The temple will remain open for Thulam month rituals over the next five days, and around 30,000 devotees have registered online for darshan during this period, a TDB official said.

President Droupadi Murmu is scheduled to visit the hill shrine on October 22.

Ironically, the reinstallation coincided with the arrest of Unnikrishnan Potty — the businessman who had sponsored the electroplating of the Dwarapalaka plates in 2019 — by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in connection with the Sabarimala gold missing case.

The Dwarapalaka plates had sparked controversy last month when the TDB removed them for re-plating at Smart Creations without the Kerala High Court’s permission.

After examining documents related to the 2019 electroplating work, the court noted a reduction in the gold weight and ordered a preliminary probe by the TDB Vigilance Wing.

The Vigilance later submitted a report citing serious misappropriation involving Potty and TDB officials.

The High Court subsequently appointed retired judge Justice K T Sankaran to prepare an inventory of the gold and other assets of the Sabarimala temple and constituted an SIT, which registered two cases and arrested Potty.