Pathanamthitta: National Democratic Alliance (NDA)'s Kozhikode candidate and Yuva Morcha state president Prakash Babu was remanded in a case related to the violence in Sabarimala. He had appeared before the Ranni Judicial Magistrate Court on Thursday seeking bail.
Prakash Babu is accused of attempting to murder a woman devotee during her bid to visit the Lord Ayyappa Temple at Sabarimala on the Chithira Atta festival day. There are seven more cases against him related to Sabarimala protests, for which arrest warrants were also issued.
Sabarimala became a battlefield after BJP supporters took it to the street to protest the LDF government's move to implement a Supreme Court verdict allowing entry to women of all ages to the temple.
On September 28, 2018, in a 4:1 judgment, the apex court said the ban on women in the child-bearing age group, whose presence in temple was considered to be "impure", violated their fundamental rights and constitutional guarantee of equality. Until then, only girls below 10 years and women over 50 years were allowed to visit the hilltop shrine.
BJP state general secretary K Surendran was also taken into custody earlier in a case related to the attack on a 52-year-old woman who came to visit the shrine during the Chithira Atta festival.
