Woman who entered Sabarimala shrine thrown out by in-laws

The development came days after her mother-in-law allegedly assaulted her after she returned home. She was taken to hospital with a head injury.


 
Thiruvananthapuram: Kanakadurga, one of the two women of menstruating age who entered the Sabarimala temple in Kerala on January 2, has alleged that her husband and his family have refused to allow her into the house, reports said. She has filed a complaint with the District Violence Protection Officer, NDTV reported.
 
The development came days after her mother-in-law allegedly assaulted her after she returned home. She was taken to hospital with a head injury. The mother-in-law had also sustained injuries in the scuffle.
 
Kanakadurga, a civil servant, is currently lodged at a shelter home for women and has been assigned a female sub-inspector for protection.
 
“Though police and district officials tried their best to convince her family, they refused to budge saying she will be taken back only after tendering a public apology to devotees and the Hindu community. The orthodox Nair family said she has brought enough shame to the community and hurt sentiments of lakhs of devotees and they won’t accept her without “atoning for her sin.” Her husband is a government employee,” Hindustan Times reported.
 
Bindu Ammini, who had entered the temple with Kanakadurga, said they will move the court against Kanakadurga’s relatives. “I was told her husband locked the house and relocated to a relative’s place so as to avoid her,” the lecturer told Hindustan Times. “She is currently in a government-run home in Perninthalamanna.”
 
Kanakadurga filed a complaint with the District Violence Protection Officer after her in-laws locked her out of the house. “The complaint has been forwarded to the court, and order is awaited,” a source close to her told NDTV.
 
The source said that when police took Kanakadurga back home from the hospital, they found that her husband had locked the door and left the place with his mother and two children. She is now living under police protection in a government shelter. 
 
Kanakadurga and another woman, 40-year-old Bindu Ammini, were the first ones of menstrual age to enter the famous hilltop shrine in decades. After their achievement, both were forced to stay in an undisclosed location on the outskirts of Kochi under state protection for fear of reprisals from right-wing activists. However, when Kanaka Durga returned home on the morning of January 15, her mother-in-law allegedly came at her with a stick and beat her until she could barely stand. “She began abusing me, saying that I had slept with many people and was a blot on the family’s reputation,” the government employee had told the police then. 
 
Sabarimala has been the subject of intense controversy since September 28 last year, when the Supreme Court junked an age-old ban on women between 10 and 50 years entering the hill shrine. While right-wing activists maintained that courts do not have jurisdiction over religious beliefs, the Kerala government vowed to uphold the verdict.

A few days ago, the Kerala government claimed that 51 women of menstrual age had entered the Ayyappa Temple under its protection. The list was later sent for revision, following media reports on age and gender discrepancies.
 

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