The body of a Sabarimala devotee found in a gorge has triggered an outcry by the BJP which sought to link the death to police brutality during a baton charge in mid-October and enforced on Friday a shutdown in the district.

A social media campaign by Sangh parivar sympathisers insinuated that Sivadasan, a 60-year-old lottery ticket seller, was killed during the baton charges on either October 16 or 17 when the temple had opened for its monthly puja. Protesters had unleashed violence to prevent women of childbearing age from entering the temple.

But the “man-missing” complaint filed by his family suggests Sivadasan was at home on both days. He left on his moped for the hill shrine, located 80km away from his home, on October 18 and planned to return the next day.

The shrine as well as Sivadasan’s home are located in Pathanamthitta district in south Kerala.

Unmindful of the family’s version, the BJP enforced a complete shutdown in Pathanamthitta district in protest against “police atrocity that killed Ayyappa devotee Sivadasan”.

Pathanamthitta SP T. Narayanan said in a video message that the allegations were baseless. “It has come to our notice that this incident is being linked to the police action in Nilakkal and Pampa on October 16 and 17. Sivadasan left home for Sabarimala on 18th morning,” he said.

“Since he did not reach home, his family conducted a search and then filed a (man missing) complaint,” the officer added.

The officer said the family had received a phone call from Sivadasan after offering his prayers at the temple.

The police later found out that Sivadasan, who never carried a mobile phone, had borrowed a phone from a devotee from Tamil Nadu to make the call.

“Since these are the facts, we will take action against anyone spreading wrong information about this case,” Narayanan said.

The information could not be verified with the distraught family.

The family had first filed a complaint with Pampa police station near Sabarimala temple on October 21 and then with Pandalam station on October 25.

The spot where the body was found falls between Laha and Plapalli in the forest range, almost half way between the 80km distance from Sivadasan’s home in Pandalam and Sabarimala.

State minister for temple affairs Kadakampally Surendran told a Malayalam TV channel: “It could be a road accident case. But the BJP and the RSS are clearly leveraging on even a possible road accident case for political benefits.”

“The body and the two-wheeler were found at a place about 15km away from Nilakkal (where the police baton-charged the protestors on October 16 and 17),” the minister said.

Information revealed by the police so far suggests Sivadasan was at home throughout the two days when police swung batons in Nilakkal.

But several BJP leaders have stuck to the “martyrdom” theory in an apparent effort to mobilise more support for the movement against implementing the Supreme Court verdict allowing women of childbearing age to enter the temple.

Kerala BJP president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai accused the police of “converting the state to a prison cell that smells of death”.

Pillai posted on Facebook: “When each Ayyappa devotee falls dead Pinarayi (chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan) yells like a mafia don.”

Pillai insisted that “the body of Sivadasan who went missing from Oct 17 has been found in the Plapalli forest”.

BJP general secretary K. Surendran echoed Pillai: “Ayyappa devotee Sivadasan, your sacrifice will be remembered until the existence of Ayyappa dharma.”

NSS office attack

An office of the Nair Service Society (NSS), a caste-based outfit that is opposing the Supreme Court verdict on the Sabarimala temple, was vandalised in Kerala on Friday morning, police said. PTI