‘Very serious’: HC on VIP darshan for actor Dileep at Sabarimala

The Kerala high court Thursday admonished the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), which administers the Lord Ayyappa shrine in Sabarimala, and the chief police coordinator over “VIP darshan” provided to actor Dileep at the temple during the ongoing annual pilgrimage.

A bench of justices Anil K Narendran and Muralee Krishna S termed the incident “very, very serious” and underlined it resulted in pilgrims being “virtually blocked” from getting darshan of the deity for several minutes.

“What is the privilege such persons are having?” the bench remarked and ordered the TDB and the police to ensure such incidents do not happen in the future.

During the hearing, the court perused the CCTV visuals of the incident which occurred on December 5 at the Sopanam (sacred steps) of the temple.

Referring to the CCTV footage, the court noted that the movement of the pilgrims through the first row in front of the “Sopanam” (space in front of sanctum sanctorum) was blocked from the southern side by the guards on duty around 10.58 pm as soon as the actor entered the area. The actor was seen in the footage remaining at the Sopanam for seven minutes.

The TDB told the bench it had issued show cause notices to the officers, including the guards, who were on duty at the time.

The high court directed the temple board and the chief police coordinator to ensure that such privileges to remain in front of the sanctum sanctorum for a considerably long time by blocking the darshan of other devotees was not extended to any other pilgrim. “The future course of action to be taken shall be decided after filing of the reports by the chief police coordinator and the secretary of the Board,” the bench said, listing the matter for hearing on Friday.