Women entry in Sabarimala: Govt to quote police figures in SC

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: State government will go by the figure collated by the police if the Supreme Court orders it to furnish the details of women (aged under 50) who had darshan at Sabarimala during the previous Makaravilakku season. It is reliably learnt that a directive – to abide by the police figure – has been given to government counsels as there is a discrepancy in the figures collated by police and Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB). The Supreme Court will consider review petitions against the women entry order on Wednesday.

It is also reliably learnt that government is of the view that it should not present figures in court unless asked to do so. Earlier, data – meant to be kept a secret – was released by the government’s counsel to the media in New Delhi.

Police had given a statement in the apex court that 51 young women had darshan at the temple while TDB maintained that the figure was only two. TDB’s version was reiterated in the assembly by devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran on Monday.

“It is true that TDB’s data is confined to two women. But, it lacks mechanisms to crosscheck the age of pilgrims whereas police have systems like virtual queue where the identity and age of pilgrims are recorded. It is natural to treat the police version as more accurate,” said a senior government official on condition of anonymity.

Sources said police had trimmed down its first list of 51 young women – sourced from the virtual queue website – to 17, by omitting all suspicious entries. There are four more women –including Kanakadurga and Bindu – who didn’t take the virtual queue route but claimed that they had darshan with evidence. S P Manju and Sri Lankan native Sasikala are the other two women.

But, TDB is of the view that it will not have to produce the details when the court takes up the case. “Ours is a special petition before the Supreme Court seeking more time to implement its verdict. I don’t think the court will seek details about the women who entered the temple,” said TDB president A Padmakumar. He said TDB is awaiting court’s observation based on which an appropriate decision will be taken on filing a report.

TDB commissioner N Vasu, who is in Delhi, met the board’s counsels on Tuesday. “The hearing is on seeking time to implement the verdict. Hence, SC is unlikely to go into other aspects like how many women visited the temple,” he said.