New Delhi: Twenty priests of the Chidambaram Natarajar temple in Tamil Nadu’s Cuddalore district have been booked under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, for allegedly stopping an SC woman from praying in the temple premises.
The alleged incident occurred Tuesday. Speaking to ThePrint, Cuddalore Superintendent of Police Thiru C. Sakthi Ganesan confirmed that the case was registered the same day on the basis of a complaint filed by the woman.
“We have booked the priests under relevant sections of the SC/SC Act. This is a private temple. There was some clash between the devotees and the priests. The priests have said that the temple committee had imposed certain restrictions on entering the temple due to Covid-19. We have informed the district collector as well,” the SP said.
Videos of the alleged incident have gone viral on social media. In one of them, a woman can be seen crying, surrounded and followed by a group of priests, known locally as ‘dhikshitars’. A heated argument also takes place between the two parties.
“The woman, Jayasheela, has alleged that the priests didn’t let her enter the ‘Kanagasabai Medai’ — a platform for praying assigned only to priests as Covid protocol decided by the temple administration,” a senior police officer told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity.
In another video, the woman can be seen trying to climb the steps to the platform while a group of priests is yelling at her.
“She filed a complaint Tuesday alleging that the priests intimidated her and falsely accused her of stealing an item from the temple premises,” the officer said.
The temple, which was earlier under the Tamil Nadu government’s Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Department — which manages and controls temple administration in the state — was returned to the priests by the former All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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