Kerala police have launched a sweeping and assiduous crackdown that has so far netted 2,061 men for various offences committed during the protests against the entry of women of child-bearing age into the Sabarimala temple.
The rolling arrests that began two days ago are being seen as a warning to those plotting a replay when the shrine opens for its peak pilgrimage season in two weeks. During a short window that ended last week, no women of child-bearing age could enter the premises because of the protests.
The arrested men were identified painstakingly from footage of the protests carried out at Nilakkal and Pampa near Sabarimala and other parts of the state where they vandalised property, blocked road traffic and disrupted normal life.
The police said 654 of the arrests were made overnight while the others were carried out over the previous two days. So far, 1,500 have been released on bail.
Many were picked up for the widespread violence and destruction of public property on October 18 when the Sangh parivar called a general strike to protest the government’s initiative to escort women pilgrims to the temple.
Director-general of police Loknath Behera told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram that more arrests would be made. “There will definitely be more arrests as we are searching for more people,” he said.
Police had released screenshots of the wanted protestors who were caught on camera since October 17. The police chief said heightened security measures would be in place before the Mandala Puja pilgrimage season, for which the Lord Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala would be thrown open at 5pm on November 16.
Before that, the hill shrine will open from 5pm on November 6 to 10pm the next day for Sree Chitra Atta Thirunal, a one-day ritual when pilgrims are free to enter the premises.
“We are legally bound to provide adequate protection to women devotees. So we are working on how to enhance the security. The special committee we formed for the purpose has been giving us lot of suggestions,” said Behera.
Although the Supreme Court had ruled that women of all ages can enter the temple and the state government crackdown is targeted at those who made a mockery of the order, the BJP has come forward to offer legal aid to any arrested “devotee.” “Since this is an attack on the Hindu religion, we welcome any arrested devotee to seek our free legal assistance,” state BJP president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai told The Telegraph.
Pillai portrayed the protesters as devotees whose right to worship was curbed although some of them had prevented several women from entering the temple and did not desist from resorting to violence.
“The BJP is ready to help all the arrested devotees since this is a blatant attack on our democratic right to worship by a government led by an atheist party,” Pillai said, referring to the CPM-led Left Democratic Front government.
But he insisted that legal help would be offered to only “devotees” and no one else. “Why should we help someone who is not a devotee? By the way, only devotees had participated in the protests,” he added.
A case was registered against activist Rahul Easwar, who belongs to the Thazhamon family of Sabarimala tantris (priests), on Friday for allegedly making a provocative statement on the Sabarimala issue, police said. A complaint was filed by a Thiruvananthapuram resident, they said.