The vigilance department on Thursday informed the Kerala High Court that 33 individuals, including three temple special officers and 30 counter staff, have been arrayed as accused in the Sabarimala ghee scam involving the alleged misappropriation of approximately Rs. 21.39 lakh from the sale of 'aadiya sishtam ghee.'
During the proceedings, the court flagged a serious lack of oversight by the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), noting that the distribution of ghee packets
was being recorded in unofficial notebooks containing multiple corrections and overwriting instead of a formal accounting system.
Consequently, the bench of Justices V Raja Vijayaraghavan and K V Jayakumar directed the vigilance team to complete its investigation within 45 days and ordered the Devaswom Board to implement a fully transparent and accountable financial framework for all temple offerings, with a detailed action plan to be submitted by February 27.