Thiruvananthapuram: Right wing activist Rahul Easwar has been taken into police custody after his provocative remarks on the entry of women in Sabarimala temple in Kerala. It is for the second time since the Sabarimala controversy surfaced that Easwar has been detained.
He had claimed that 20 Lord Ayyappa devotees opposing the entry of women in the age group of 10 and 50 were ready to inflict knife injuries on themselves and "spill blood" on the temple premises which would have forced the priests to close the gates on account of impurity.
“People must remember if devotees are provoked, we have our own ways," he had said on October 25.
A case was registered against Easwar on Friday, who belongs to the Thazhamon family of Sabarimala tantris (priests), on the basis of a complaint filed by a Thiruvananthapuram native, the police said.
He has been charged under IPC Section 153A for promoting enemity between groups in the basis of religion.
Easwar’s statement received backlash from the state government. The Devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran said that statement pointed towards a conspiracy of the devotees.
The BJP too distanced itself from Easwar’s remark.
Rahul Easwar later said that though the people were ready to take the step to bar women from entering the temple premises, he had discouraged them from doing so.
Easwar has been spearheading the protest against Supreme Court’s ruling to allow women of all age groups to enter the premises of Lord Ayyapa’s temple in Kerala’s Sabarimala. He was areested on October 17 for ‘unlawful assembly, rioting and obstructing public servant from discharging his duty". He was remanded to judicial custody and was granted bail on October 22.
So far in connection with the sabarimala violence 2825 people were arrested across the state of which 126 were remanded and 495 cases have been registered.
The temple had witnessed high drama with around a dozen women in 10-50 age group being prevented from entering the temple by protesting devotees after the doors were opened for
all women following the Supreme Court verdict.
The Kerala High Court had Thursday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation seeking barring of entry of women in the menstrual age group into the Sabarimala hill shrine till additional facilities were set up for them, and said the petitioner can approach the Supreme Court.
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