Overview
- Murari Babu, 54, died in Kochi while receiving cancer treatment at Amrita Hospital on Saturday, June 13, 2026, and his body was handed to family for funeral rites.
- Babu was arrested on October 23, 2025, in cases alleging gold loss from Sabarimala and was granted statutory bail by the Kollam Vigilance Court on January 23, 2026 after investigators missed the 90‑plus day chargesheet deadline.
- The Special Investigation Team accused him of falsely recording gold‑clad plates on Dwarapalaka idols as copper and arraigned him as the second accused in that theft case and the sixth accused in a separate sanctum door‑frame theft case.
- Vigilance investigators also alleged unexplained wealth during his TDB tenure, including luxury construction at his ancestral property, and examined whether he intervened to hand over gold plates to prime accused Unnikrishnan Potti under the guise of renovation.
- The pause created by his death could slow or reshape prosecutions but investigations and civil inquiries into assets and institutional controls at the Travancore Devaswom Board are continuing and will determine next legal and administrative steps.