Kochi | The Kerala High Court on Friday directed the state police to register a criminal case in connection with the "misappropriation of gold" from the "side frame or lintels" of the shrine and launch an investigation.

A bench of Justices Raja Vijayaraghavan V and K V Jayakumar issued the direction after noting that from the investigation conducted till now, "it appears that insofar as the side frames or lintels are concerned, misappropriation of gold has been carried out".

The bench further said that it was also revealed from the vigilance report placed before it that "substantial quantity of gold -- amounting to about 474.9 grams -- was handed over to Unnikrishnan Potty (the sponsor who offered to carry out the gold-plating)".

"However, the records do not reveal that this quantity of gold was entrusted with the TDB (by him)," the court added.

The bench directed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by it to probe the side frame/lintels issue also along with all the other aspects that come up during their inquiry.