Kerala HC asks govt to explain stand on BJP state chief's plea

The Kerala High Court on Saturday asked the state government to explain its stand on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president PS Sreedharan Pillai's plea to quash the First Information Report (FIR) against him.

Pillai had filed a petition in the court asking the judicature to quash the FIR against him in connection with his speech on Sabarimala.

According to media reports, Kozhikode's Kasaba police on Thursday registered a case against Pillai after he referred to Sabarimala as a 'golden opportunity' in his speech during an event organised by BJP Yuva Morcha on Monday.

"Sabarimala is a golden opportunity. It is an issue. Settling the Sabarimala issue in a straight line is not possible. We put forward an agenda and everyone else surrendered to it, leaving only us and our enemies, the government and its parties," he had said.

He also claimed that the BJP had planned the entire protest when the decade-old shrine was opened in October. "Our BJP secretaries had gone to a (decided) place and carried out what they were supposed to do successfully. When Sreejith IPS went to Sabarimala with two women, it was a Yuva Morcha leader who assembled devotees and stopped them. The outside world doesn't know all this," he had stated.

The BJP leader had also claimed that the Sabarimala Temple chief Kandararu Rajeevaru had called him to discuss the shutting the doors of the Lord Ayyappa's shrine if women aged between 10 and 50 entered its sanctum sanctorum.

While speaking to ANI, Pillai also claimed:"Many CPM ministers have also sought my opinion, and I have fought cases," he had said.

The Sabarimala Temple and surrounding areas witnessed a string of protests recently over the Supreme Court's decision to quash restrictions on the entry of females between the ages of 10 and 50 into the holy shrine.