Chettikulangara Devi Temple holds banned ritual; scribe roughed up

Alappuzha: Defying the High Court ban, the Chettikulangara Devi temple conducted regressive Chooral Muriyal ritual piercing flanks of 26 kids below ten on Monday.

The ritual conducted under the tight vigil of the volunteers deployed by Sreedevi Vilasam Hindumatha Convention, began early morning and lasted till noon. It's the second time temple defying the court order.

This correspondent, reached the temple early morning, faced a harrowing time for filming it on the mobile phone. The first Chooral Muriyal was at the Nadapandal at 7 am.

One of the volunteers came and asked me to keep the phone in the pocket. When refused, he tried to snatch the phone and continued intimidation. While the argument was going on, the chanting at the Nadapandal rose in the air.

A volunteer said that if this correspondent continues with filming, “it will be the end”.  When asked why they were preventing filming outside the ‘Chuttambalam’, ...the volunteer said it was their temple, and their rule would be in place. When the filming continued, they grabbed my hands and pushed on the rear side. All of a sudden, a person emerged from the group and slapped on the face, asking me that ‘whether I would film the Chooral Muriyal’.

Following this, this correspondent sat on the ground. They surrounded me to hurt again. They created a “life and death” situation for at least half an hour although police gave a protective cover.

Later, this correspondent registered a complaint with Mavelikara police against the perpetrators. Police said that they would register an FIR based on the complaint and arrest the people who resorted to violence.

Body-piercing ceremony was continuing in various places around the temple. Painted like little kings with black moustaches, they made these kids walk kilometres to reach the temple.

At the temple, the Aasans who pierced their skin pulled out the golden thread from bleeding fissures and put into the Bhandaram set outside the Chuttambalam.

The interesting thing is the entire ritual was held outside the Chuttambalam where these kids will not be allowed to enter. This correspondent saw that some of the men out there were running to the nearby temple pond holding howling kids in their hands immediately after the ritual was over.

FIR ws registered  under sections 341  (Punishment for wrongful restraint),323, (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt).294(b) (using abusive language),506, (Punishment for criminal intimidation) 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of Indian Penal Code.