Writer Ramanunni performs a 'shayanapradakshinam' at the Sri Krishna Temple at Kadalayi, Kannur, as penance to the brutal rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl in Kashmir.Kannur: Malayalam writer K P Ramanunni created a stir on Thursday when he went to a temple in Kadalayi to do a symbolic act of penance for the rape and murder of a girl in a temple in Kathua in Jammu recently.
Ramanunni reached the Sri Krishna Temple at Kadalayi, near Chirakkal, around 9 am to perform a 'shayanapradakshinam' as penance to the brutal rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl in January. Members of the Sangh Parivar outfits, however, prevented him.
The Kathua incident had embarrassed the BJP as two of its ministers had to resign from the Jammu & Kashmir state government after they attended a march in support of the accused.
Sangh Parivar workers at Kadalayi said that they would not let Ramanunni conduct a protest inside the temple. Ramanunni stood his ground and said that he had the right to perform the ritual as a Hindu. He bathed in the temple tank and entered the temple but the Sangh Parivar activists blocked the way for the photographers who wanted to cover the event.
Ramanunni proceeded to pray at the sanctum sanctorum and went to the flag staff. By then the Sangh Parivar activists had gathered in huge numbers at the spot. Deputy police superintendent P P Sadanandan led a group of policemen to maintain order inside the temple.
As Ramanunni started rolling on the ground as a form of penance, Sangh Parivar activists started singing hymns and walking in front of him. The situation was tense as the right-wing activists and the CPM workers accompanying Ramanunni confronted each other. The trigger for the bedlam came when the protesters tried to block someone from shooting the event. They even alleged that one of them was manhandled by Ramanunni’s companions. As the situation developed into a free-for-all, Ramanunni left the temple without completing the ritual.
The police forced out the miscreants, but both camps continued the scuffle outside the temple. The police intervened again to bring the situation under control.
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