Underscoring charges made by various organisations that Hindus are not safe in Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram City Police dragged a priest performing puja in a temple, handcuffed him, and forcibly took him to a distant station under the pretext of interrogating him about the theft of a panchaloha idol.
The incident occurred in the capital city late Friday evening when Arun Potti, a poor priest engaged in the evening puja at the Muthumari Amman Temple — an ancient sacred site managed by the Viswakarma sect but attracting devotees from across the capital — was interrupted.
When police barged into the temple, Arun was in the midst of the dusk puja. When asked to leave the sanctum sanctorum, he amiably replied that he would come out once the puja was over.
However, the police team, led by Circle Inspector Mohammed Nizar, stormed into the sanctum sanctorum, dragged Arun out, handcuffed him, and took him to a distant police station. “The police did not inform the temple administration about their move to take the priest into custody. Had they told us, we would have made arrangements for the priest to accompany them to the station and also made alternate arrangements for the smooth conduct of the puja,” M Nanda Kumar, president of the Manakkadu Muthumari Amman Temple Trust, told The Pioneer.
The puja rituals were disrupted due to the high-handed behaviour of the police and could only be completed after the priest performed purification rituals upon his release.