Sabarimala
On the ground, the situation around Sabarimala temple is tense as devotees staged protests to stop women from entering the complex despite the Supreme Court’s historic ruling last month.
At Nilakkal, 15 km away from Pambha, which is the base camp for the hill shrine, devotees, mostly women began checking vehicles amid heavy rain and asking women to go back. Despite a large deployment of police, no protester has been stopped from preventing women who were headed for the temple. A group of college students from Bengaluru were sent back. Besides private vehicles, devotees even stopped and inspected Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses and asked young women to get out.
Women journalists, who tried to reach the hill temple as part of their official assignments, were also stopped. Police foiled suicide attempt by a woman devotee in Nilakkal after she threatened to hang herself from a tree.
The temple opens its doors at 5 pm Wednesday but there is already speculation that chief tantri won’t show up for the rituals following the failure of the talks.
Security remains a concern amid the tense situation. More police force is expected to reach Nilakkal. Pathnamthitta’s superintendent of police T Narayanan who is camping in Nilakkal refused to speak to the media.
Earlier, Padmakumar who is also a former CPI (M) legislator had expressed hopes for a breakthrough in the talks.
“We are confident the issue will be sorted out amicably. We will hear all stakeholders patiently. We don’t want to make it a political issue. At the same time we will convince them about our limitations,” Padmakumar said.
The former royal family of Pandalam had put the ball in the TDB’s court to find a solution to the imbroglio.
“We stick to our decision to maintain the status quo at the temple. It is for the TDB to find a solution,” Verma said before the talks.
Earlier this month, the royal family and the tantri had turned down an invitation of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for talks
The apex court’s verdict declaring the ban on women of reproductive age from entering the Sabarimala temple as unconstitutional sparked an immediate backlash among the devotees. The BJP and the Congress in Kerala have backed the devotees which has made it difficult for the Left front government to implement the Supreme Court order. and was accompanied by a few friends including women.
Police have registered a case under the Arms Act on the basis of video. A Look Out Circular (LOC) was also issued by Delhi Police against Ashish Pandey, ANI reported.
“A complaint from Assistant Security Manager Hyatt Regency Hotel, R K Puram has been received regarding incident that occurred on the intervening night of October 13-14. Accordingly a case under sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act has been registered ..... Legal action is being taken as per law,” said. Devender Arya, Delhi’s deputy commissioner of police (southwest).
Joint Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Ajay Chaudhary said on the incident took place on October 14 at 3.40 am.
“No complaint was lodged by the victim and the hotel staff on the same day. There is negligence on the part of three parties -- the victim, hotel authorities and the accused,” he said, adding Delhi police was coordinating with the UP police and teams are looking out for Ashish Pandey.
He said the police are also trying to trace the victim.
In Lucknow, police reached Pandey’s residence to ascertain details in the case.
His father Rakesh Pandey was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2009 from Ambedkar Nagar. PTI said that the accused’s brother Ritesh Pandey is a sitting MLA in Uttar Pradesh.
Reacting to the incident, BSP leader Sudhindhra Bhadoria said a “proper investigation should be done and action should be taken”.
“The incident doesn’t have any connection with BSP. He is neither a leader nor a member of BSP,” he reportedly said.