Vijayawada: Five Ayyappa devotees from Andhra Pradesh have been accused of damaging the gold mast that was erected on Sunday at the holy shrine of Sabarimala in Kerala.
The Kerala police started checking the returning vehicles and intercepted five persons at Pamba check-post and identified them as being the ones seen in the CCTV footage. They have been taken into custody for interrogation.
The arrested persons were identified as Dandamudi Naga Laxman Chowdary, Dandamudi Venkat Rao, Satyanarayana Reddy, G. Sudhakar Reddy and Uma Maheswar Reddy, residents of Gandikunta and Peda Ogirala in Krishna district.
Upon hearing that five persons from his constituency have been detained, the Penamaluru MLA, Bode Prasad, took up the matter with Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who directed Krishna district collector B. Lakshmi Kantam and DGP N. Sambasivarao to look into the issue.
According to Mr Bode Prasad, those arrested on charges of conspiracy by the Kerala police are ardent devotees of Ayyappa and have been visiting the temple for the past 15 to 20 years. It is a common practice in Andhra Pradesh to offer ‘Nava Dhanyalu’ (Nine different grains) and ‘Pancha Lohalu’ (five metals) during installation of the mast in temples.
However, these offerings are done during the time of installation, and the grains and metals are placed in the foundation pit. By the time these five persons from Andhra Pradesh reached the temple, the installation of the mast was completed and so they placed the metals and grains at the base of the golden mast.
One of the metals was mercury and it has caused a chemical reaction with the gold. Mr Prasad said they have not done anything with the intention to cause damage. Mr Prasad’s intervention came a little late as by the time the DGP spoke to his counterpart in Kerala, the five persons had been produced in court on charges of conspiracy and were sent to judicial remand.
