The Kerala High Court has condemned the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) for allowing Malayalam actor Dilip Kumar to have VIP darshan at the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple. Dilip reached the Ayyappa temple on December 5 and had darshan there late at night. The actor received VIP treatment from TDB. All other pilgrims are prevented from having darshan. The court recommended that the TDB restrict the temple’s privileges.
Malayalam actor Dileep visited the Lord Ayyappa temple during his visit to Sabarimala. During this period, he was given VIP facilities in the temple. When hearing the case, the court expressed its dissatisfaction with TDB. He feels that preventing people from having darshan during VIP darshan is a serious category. A bench of Justices Anil K Narendra and Murali Krishna S heard the entire case. During this period, he said that this was not a matter of two minutes.
Court sees CCTV footage from temple
The first two lines of Soparnam were stopped during the actor’s darshan, which is not true at all. What privileges does such a person have, the bench said? The High Court directed the Travankode Vaswam Board (TDB) and the Chief Coordinator of Police to ensure that such things do not happen again in future. The court gave this direction after viewing the CCTV footage of the temple. Meanwhile, the CCTV footage of the temple was also played in court.
read this too
TDB issues show cause notice
In the CCTV video, at 10:58 pm, temple guards had blocked the advance of the first line on the south side in front of Sophanan. Actor Dileep entered the temple at 10:58 am and came out at 11:55 am. The TDB told the judge that it had issued show-cause notices to officials, including two guards controlling the queue of pilgrims in front of Sophanan Gate. The court has accepted the matter.
