Sabarimala pilgrim faces terrible experience

SABRIMALAI:  For Srinivasan,  the 30-year old pilgrim from Villupuram in Tamil Nadu,  the incident at Vandenmedu in Idukki district on Monday night,  was a nightmare. Talking to the Express,  Srinivasan said the he had to face a terrible experience at Vandenmedu from miscreants in the name of the agitation on the Mullaperiyar dam issue.   He said he had chosen the Vandenmedu route after crossing Cumbumedu check-post to prevent the difficulty at Kumily check-post.   Srinivasan, who along with his three-year-old daughter,  mother and a friend,  were travelling  in an Indica car,  when it was stopped at Vandenmedu by a group of anti-social elements in a drunken state who hurled abuses at them and broke the car’s front and back window panes with stones, even though  they identified themselves as Sabarimala pilgrims.   The repeated pleas of his mother fell on deaf ears.   His daughter,  who was fast asleep in the car when it was attacked,  was terrified after witnessing the vandalism.