COLOMBO — A Sri Lankan court has ordered the arrest of the chief priest of a Hindu temple in central Colombo after police said he repeatedly removed gold jewellery from the temple’s safe, pawned it and used the proceeds for gambling before redeeming and returning the valuables.
The Fort Magistrate’s Court also imposed a travel ban on the priest, identified as Satheeskumar Gurukkal, 34, who served as the chief priest of the Sri Sivasubramaniyar Temple in Slave Island and has since gone into hiding, according to police.
The allegations were presented before Fort Magistrate Basan Amarasekara when the case was taken up on Sunday.
Police told the court that the temple administration had filed a complaint after discovering that jewellery was missing from a safe during the temple’s annual festival on July 29.
Investigators subsequently found evidence indicating that the chief priest, who had access to the key to the safe, had pawned temple jewellery at three pawnshops in the Kotahena area, police told the court.
Police said the transactions had raised about 26.7 million Sri Lankan rupees, and alleged that the priest used the money for gambling.
Pawn receipts linked to the transactions were recovered during the investigation, according to the police account presented in court. The temple administration has since recovered the pawned jewellery.
But investigators told the court that the July discovery appeared to be the culmination of a much longer pattern.
The priest had worked at the temple for about a decade and, since 2024, had allegedly removed jewellery from the safe, pawned it, gambled with the proceeds and later redeemed the jewellery and returned it before its absence was detected, police said.
Investigators believe he carried out the cycle about 90 times, according to the police account.
Police asked the magistrate for permission to obtain data connected to the suspect’s mobile phone as part of their efforts to locate him and continue the investigation.
After considering the submissions, the magistrate ordered police to arrest the priest and produce him before court, while also barring him from leaving the country.
Slave Island Police are continuing the investigation.
