K.P. Prakash Babu, BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate from Kozhikode, was remanded for 14 days in jail in judicial custody after the First Class Judicial Magistrate in Ranni rejected his bail plea on Thursday.
Kozhikode: K.P. Prakash Babu, BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate from Kozhikode, was remanded for 14 days in jail in judicial custody after the First Class Judicial Magistrate in Ranni rejected his bail plea on Thursday.
He has been booked on an ‘attempt to murder charge’ by the state police against a woman devotee who had come to offer prayers at the Sabarimala temple during the ‘Chithira Atta Vishesham’ festivities.
Babu faces at least eight police cases, of which arrest warrants were out on three of them. He’s accused of blocking women devotees, indulging in arson and violence and burning vehicles during a protest march to the office of the temple administration.
“No government that disrespects the faith will survive. I am not afraid of remand and will fight the election from jail,” he was quoted by News18 Malayalam as saying.
The BJP and its Sangh Parivar affiliates had fought pitched battles with the police at the base camp and premises of the Sabarimala temple in the backdrop of the Supreme Court judgment allowing women of all ages at the shrine last year. The BJP, which opposed the verdict, cited temple tradition and custom to defend its actions.
According to the police, a violent mob under Sabarimala Karma Samiti attacked the woman on November 5 saying she was of menstrual age.
BJP leaders K. Surendran, V.V. Rajesh, and Valsan Thillenkeri are also defendants in the case. Mr Babu is also the state president of Yuva Morcha.
He surrendered to obtain bail in the charged cases as it is mandatory for submitting the nomination for the Lok Sabha elections, which closes on April 4.