Sabarimala Temple Ghee Scam: In a crucial development in the Sabarimala temple ghee scam, the Kerala High Court on Tuesday ordered a vigilance probe into the matter. A bench of justices Raja Vijayaraghavan V and KV Jayakumar ordered the Director, Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, to register a crime and constitute a team of "upright and competent officers" to investigate it. The court said that it was "shocked and deeply disturbed" by the turn of events.

It appears to us that certain employees of the Travancore Devaswom Board are more interested in siphoning off amounts rather than conscientiously rendering the service entrusted to them, the court said.

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"The investigating team shall file a report before this Court within a period of one month from today, indicating the progress of the investigation. The team so constituted shall be answerable only to this court, and before filing the final report, prior permission of this court shall be obtained," the bench said.

What Is The Ghee Scam?

Employees of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) allegedly misappropriated funds in relation to the sale of 'Adiya Sishtam Ghee' -- a sacred offering sold to devotees at the Lord Ayyappa shrine at Sabarimala. The misappropriation detected pertains to a short period of less than two months.

16,628 Packets Of Ghee Sold Without Record

The orders came in a petition initiated by the court on its own following a report by the TDB's Chief Vigilance and Security Officer pointing out that sale proceeds of 16,628 packets of ghee sold at the shrine have not been remitted to the Devaswom account.

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"The records reveal that the price of 13,679 packets, amounting to Rs 13,67,900, has not been remitted. The magnitude of the short remittance, within a limited window of time, is alarming and cannot be brushed aside as an accounting lapse," the bench said.

Besides that, the report also revealed that there was a shortage of 22,565 packets of ghee during the period from December 27, 2025 to January 2, 2026, leading to a loss of revenue of Rs 22,65,500 to the Devaswom, the court noted and said that it was "not a case of mere negligence". The court said that if over Rs 35 lakh from sale of ghee was siphoned off in under two months, it would be difficult to imagine the magnitude of misappropriation that may have occurred over a longer period and across other revenue streams.

(With PTI inputs)