KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Friday criticised the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) and the state police for allegedly providing ‘VIP’ treatment to actor Dileep during his visit to Sabarimala for darshan.
A division bench comprising Justice Anil K Narendran and Justice Muralee Krishna S said such incidents cannot be taken lightly.
Observing that Dileep and others entered the Sannidhanam with police escort, the court asked: “How do individuals gain access to darshan with police protection? What is happening in Sabarimala?” The bench reminded us that Sabarimala is a special security zone. During the ‘VIP visit’, even elderly people and children who had been waiting in long queues had to return without a proper darshan, the court observed.
“Who permitted Dileep and others to stand in front of the Sreekovil until the sacred Harivarasanam hymn was completed? What privilege do they have? How were they given special treatment, obstructing the darshan of other devotees,” the court asked.
It directed the TDB to take necessary steps to ensure that such incidents obstructing a proper darshan for pilgrims, including children, senior citizens and persons with disabilities, are not repeated during the Mandala-Makaravilakku season.
The court directed the officer-in-charge of crowd management at Sopanam to file a detailed report. The court made the remarks while reviewing a report submitted by the Devaswom executive officer regarding VIP visits to the Sannidhanam during the Mandala-Makaravilakku festival.
The report stated that, on December 5 night, Dileep offered darshan during the ‘Harivarasanam’ time. The Sabarimala devaswom administrative officer, assistant executive officer, and sopanam special officer were present at Sopanam at that time. The initial investigation found that Dileep, Alappuzha District Judge K K Radhakrishnan, NORKA Roots in-charge K P Anilkumar, and their companions were escorted to the Sopanam by the police.
HC comes down on devaswom officials
While Dileep, judge Radhakrishnan, and Anilkumar were allowed darshan, those accompanying them were redirected through the general queue from the north. The report also said Sabarimala devaswom guards Biju Bose and Shine T Raj were responsible for managing the first line.
The court also flayed the devaswom officials for extending similar special treatment to the district judge and the NORKA Roots officer.
During the hearing, the government pleader informed the court that explanations had been sought from the officers responsible for the incident.
The court also directed the TDB to produce the CCTV footage of the VIP visit for examination on Saturday.
The Additional District Magistrate, Sabarimala, submitted that the VIPs visited the Sopanam by entering the place through the opposite direction of devotees’ queue just before the Harivarasanam and blocked the first row during the entire Harivarasanam and this caused an interruption to the flow of devotees through the front row. This created back pressure in the inner line of the overbridge and some 200-250 devotees were stuck in the same line during the entire Harivarasanam.
Finally, they could not have darshan even though they entered the overbridge before the beginning of Harivarasanam. Since there is limited possibility to channel them to other queues and also due to the continuous inflow of devotees from Holy Steps these devotees could not be moved to other lines.
The tail-end of the crowd had reached the slopping steps of the over-bridge and the pressure due to the crowd created a potential accident-like scenario at this slopping step’s part.
The crowd included children and aged people and as the police issued directions promptly, they could manage to take out the children from the queue outside to avoid any injury to them, said the ADM.