A report submitted to the Kerala High Court has alleged that priests and daily-wage workers at the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple transferred money worth crores—said to be earned through bribes and irregularities—through their bank accounts during the 2025–26 Mandala–Makaravilakku season.
The report notes that Sabarimala, in Pathanamthitta district, has branches of Dhanalakshmi Bank and State Bank of India, where temple staff maintain accounts. Following a gold theft incident at the temple, multiple alleged irregularities at Sabarimala have been taken up for scrutiny.
As part of the monitoring of temporarily appointed staff, including priests and assistant priests, the report claims that those involved avoided holding cash to reduce the risk of being caught by vigilance authorities, and instead routed funds through transfers to multiple accounts.
According to the report, during the last season, SBI saw 1,667 transactions totalling Rs 8.08 crore, while Dhanalakshmi Bank recorded 942 transfers totalling Rs 11.45 crore. The transfers were traced across 18 accounts linked to the chief priest, other priests, daily-wage workers and contractors; Rs 14.08 lakh was also sent via post offices.
The report further mentions allegations such as collecting money for assisting devotees with darshan, involvement of some persons in ghee-sale irregularities, and instances of daily-wage workers engaging in lottery sales. It also flags claims that more daily-wage workers than required are being appointed. The submission was made by a special officer appointed by the court, following the High Court’s direction to file a report on daily-wage appointments at Sabarimala.
