Two Devaswom Employees Arrested for Smuggling Foreign Currency and Gold from Sabarimala Temple
Pathanamthitta: Two Devaswom employees have been arrested for attempting to smuggle foreign currency and gold by hiding them inside their mouths from the Sabarimala temple treasury. Those arrested are M. G. Gopakumar (51) of Koduppunna Mana house, Alappuzha, and Sunil G. Nair (51) of Nalupuraykal, Kainakary. They were taken into custody by the Devaswom Vigilance. Both are temporary employees.
The fraud came to light when, during an inspection conducted as they were leaving after duty, it was noticed that their mouths were full. Malaysian currency was recovered from Gopakumar, while Euro, Canadian, and UAE currencies were seized from Sunil.
During a search of their rooms, vigilance officials recovered ₹13,820 from Gopakumar’s bag, including 27 notes of ₹500, two notes of ₹100, four notes of ₹20, and four notes of ₹10, along with a two-gram gold locket. From Sunil G. Nair’s bag, ₹25,000 was seized, including 50 notes of ₹500 and 17 foreign currency notes, according to Vigilance SP V. Sunilkumar.