SABARIMALA PROTESTER IMMOLATES HIMSELF

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:A man said to be an Ayyappa devotee set himself afire on Thursday in front of the Kerala secretariat where senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader C K Padmanabhan has been staging a sit-in protest against restrictions imposed at Sabarimala temple by the state government, police said, adding, he later succumbed to his burns.

Venugopalan Nair, 49, suffered 80% burns and had been rushed to Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital.

According to police, around 3 am, Nair drenched himself with kerosene and set himself ablaze. Chanting ‘Swamiye Saranam Ayyappa’ in praise of the presiding deity at Sabarimala temple, he tried to run towards the makeshift tent where Padmanabhan has been on an indefinite fast.

BJP activists and police present near the venue doused the flames using water and took him to hospital. Even as he was covered with burns, he was trying to talk, the officials accompanying him said.

A resident of Muttada, Nair was a sympathiser of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, according to police. His relatives told reporters he was extremely disturbed by the recent developments at the hill shrine.

STATE SHUTDOWN

The BJP which is spearheading a noisy campaign on Sabarimala has called a 12-hour shutdown in Kerala to protest the death of Nair. “The state government is responsible for the death of the devotee. It is playing with fire,” said party general secretary MT Ramesh, while announcing the shutdown, the third since the SC verdict on September 28.

The CPI(M) district committee has denied the report that he belonged to a party family.

NAIR WITH 60% BURNS WAS RUSHED TO HOSPITAL WHERE DOCS SAID HIS CONDITION WAS CRITICAL. HE LATER SUCCUMBED TO BURNS