Sabarimala Ghee Sales: Vigilance Detects Irregularities Exceeding ₹21 Lakh in 45 Days
Kochi: The Vigilance Department informed the Kerala High Court that financial irregularities exceeding ₹21.39 lakh were detected in the sale of aadiya shishtam ghee at Sabarimala over a one-and-a-half-month period. The irregularities reportedly occurred between November 16 and December 31, 2025.
Although the Vigilance sought three months to complete the probe, the Devaswom Bench comprising Justice V. Raja Vijayaraghavan and Justice K. V. Jayakumar directed that the investigation be completed within 45 days.
The case is being considered by the court based on a suo motu petition initiated following a report submitted by the Sabarimala Special Commissioner. The report was based on a preliminary inspection conducted by the Devaswom Chief Vigilance and Security Officer regarding the ghee sales.
Vigilance SP H. Mahesh, the investigating officer, along with other officials, appeared before the court in person. The officer informed the court that there are 33 accused in the case — 30 of them are priests, while three are temple Special Officers.
During hearing on Wednesday, HC flagged several shortcomings regarding the sale of sacred offerings at Sabarimala, including the absence of formal proceedings or authentic records detailing staff deployment at each counter.
From the report submitted by the vigilance team, HC observed that the temple special officer issues ghee packets to counters after recording the quantities in a school-series notebook, colloquially referred to as a ‘kutti book'.
Separate notebooks are maintained for each counter and kept in the temple office. These notebooks record the number of packets issued along with the signatures of the receiving counter staff. HC also noted that the notebooks contained multiple corrections, overwriting and interlineations.
The High Court said that the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) and its officials must exercise much stricter supervision over activities that generate several lakhs of rupees every day.
The court directed TDB to ensure that all income from the sale of prasadam items — such as appams, aadiya sishtam ghee, aravana, vibhoothi, and kumkum — is managed under a clear, transparent, and fully accountable financial and administrative system.
It also ordered TDB to establish a proper system for recording, verifying, and depositing the sale proceeds, and to seek professional or technical help immediately if required.
Further, the court instructed TDB to submit a detailed action plan explaining how it will implement these directions, along with a clear timeline for compliance. The matter has been adjourned to February 27.