Kochi: A 12-year old girl from Tamil Nadu who arrived at Pamba along with her father was stopped by police from proceeding to the hill shrine on Tuesday. The incident happened around 10 am when the daughter-father duo arrived with a group of devotees from Belur near Salem.
According to sources, women personnel posted at Pamba asked them to produce documents though the age of the girl was shown as ‘10’ in the virtual Q booking. The age as per the girl’s Aadhar card was found to be 12 years and the cops refused to let her proceed further to the hill shrine, nearly four kms of trekking from Pamba base camp.
A video surfaced of the girl in tears after the police asked her to stay back with them in the rest room till her father and other members of the group returns after offering prayers at the Lord Ayyappa temple.
The police, though, denied the same and said they only informed the group of the prevailing situation in Sabarimala and the girl agreed to stay back.
With the Supreme Court last week referring a review petition of its earlier order, allowing entry to women of all ages to the temple, to a larger bench, the state government changed its stance and made it clear no police protection will be given to women in the age group of 10 to 50 years to enter the shrine.
Cops are also vigilant against women in the age group making attempts to reach sannidhanam and regularly inspect documents for age-proof.
The police earlier stopped a women devotee from Andhra Pradesh on Monday on similar grounds and had sent back 10 young women from the same state on the opening day itself.
