ALAPPUZHA: Chettikulangara temple authorities performed the banned Chooral Muriyal ritual with 30 children below eight years on Thursday defying the High Court orders. The regressive ritual came to an end after the golden coil penetrated through their either sides of their midribs retrieved from the wound with the blood stains with all ritualistic fervour inside the temple by noon. The children, who were decked up with traditional crown, garland, wrist straps and plantain leaves, were taken to the temple from 6 am onwards accompanying Asans (masters) and cacophony of chants and songs.
Specially-trained volunteers of Sreedevi Vilasam Hindumatha Convention, a devotee outfit, stopped photographers and reporters taking pictures. They created a double-layered human wall so that people couldn’t snap the kids with mobile phones as well. Two sets of Kuthiyottam by V.N. Bhaskaran Kunji and Sureshkumar, both American Malayalis, refused to conduct the ritual the traditional way.
Sources said they desisted from piercing midribs of children fearing legal proceedings preventing their return. However, the children they hired pierced tip of their fingers with a needle and golden coil smeared with blood from fingers. The rest stuck to age-old proceedings including piercing of midribs. The ritual wound up by 11.30 am. An eyewitness said the groups entered the ‘sannidhanam’ by one by one since morning and there were loud cries of children when the pierced coil was pulled out.
"Later the golden coil was offered to the temple in a mark of the children given to the deity as the sacrifice. The ritual was held under the surveillance cameras set up by the police," he said. The HC had given strict orders to the temple authorities not to conduct the regressive ritual, ruling that anybody going ahead with it would be booked on non-bailable charges. It was also in violation of an undertaking the temple authorities gave in the HC on Tuesday.
S. Surendran, district police chief, who rushed to the temple by evening, said he would book people who defied the court order. “The medical report of kids subjected to the ritual will be collected as proof," he told DC. P. Sreekumar, circle inspector, Mavelikara, said they had served notices to the persons who conducted Kuttiyottams and biological parents citing the court order. "Instruction has been received from senior officers to register cases against them. We will collect CCTV footage inside the temple since were restricted from entering the temple," he said.
