NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will hear on March 19 a petition filed by the CEO of Chennai-based Smart Creations, challenging his arrest in a case of alleged misappropriation of gold from the shrine of Lord Ayyappa.
The Dwarapalaka idols at Sabarimala were taken to Smart Creations for gold plating.
Smart Creations CEO Pankaj Bhandari has moved the Supreme Court challenging the February 13 order of the Kerala High Court, which dismissed his plea against his arrest. He filed his petition in the Supreme Court through advocate Vivek Jain.
“The special leave application was listed on March 19, 2026,” a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma said.
Before the Supreme Court, Bhandari claimed that his arrest was illegal because mandatory requirements were not complied with, including reporting the arrest and informing him of its reasons.
The prosecution disputed his confession before the Supreme Court, claiming that mandatory requirements had been complied with.
The Supreme Court rejected the contentions of the petitioner and said that the only anomaly that could be seen in the procedures adopted by the arresting officer was that he failed to produce Bhandari before the Special Vigilance Court at Kollam in time.
The Supreme Court said there was a delay in his being produced before the special court due to the time taken for medical examination and traveling 71 km from Thiruvananthapuram to Kollam. “I do not think that this in itself is a reason to declare the detention unlawful,” the Supreme Court said.
The Special Investigation Team probing the alleged misappropriation of gold from Dwarapalaka idols and door frames of Sreekovil has alleged that Bhandari and Ballari-based jeweler Govardhan Roddam played a central role in a conspiracy to steal gold from artefacts at the Sabarimala temple.
The special court had alleged that Bhandari and Rodham, along with first accused Unnikrishnan Butte, planned to steal the gold entrusted to them for the electroplating business.
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