Actress Jaimala to be charged in Sabarimala case

Four years after her controversial claim of touching Lord Ayyappa's idol in the Sabarimala temple triggered a raging storm, Kerala Police has decided to file a charge sheet against Kannada actress Jaimala, who said she would take legal recourse to uphold her 'innocence'.

Fifty-year-old Jaimala, astrologer Unnikrishnan and his assistant Raghupathi would be charged by next week under Section 295 A of IPC for "deliberate and malicious act" intended to outrage religious feeling, police sources said.

The charge sheet would be filed in the judicial magistrate court in Ranni in Pathanamthitta district before November 15, the sources said.

In June, 2006, Jaimala claimed that she had, in the prime of her youth, entered the sanctum sanctorum of the hill shrine and even touched the presiding deity's idol, defying a ban on women in the age group of 10-50  worshipping at the temple.

Jaimala would figure as the third accused in the case in which the astrologer and his Bangalore-based 'aide' would be the first and second accused, they said.

Expressing surprise over the Kerala Police move, Jaimala told PTI in Bangalore, "I have come to know about this only through the media. I am yet to get any information about this from Kerala Police. I must know what I have done that I am being chargesheeted. Once I get the official information from the Kerala Police or the court, I will consult my legal advisor and take appropriate action to protect my interest and uphold my innocence."

Jaimala had raised a controversy when she faxed her claim to the temple administration office during an astrological examination of the conduct of the temple affairs under the leadership of Unnikrishnan.

Unnikrishnan had claimed that the pujas and rituals of the shrine were not performed with due sanctity and there were even signs of the idol having been touched by a woman.

It was in this backdrop that Jaimala made the claim that she had visited the temple when she was 18 and she wanted to do penance for that.

The Kerala government ordered a probe by crime branch, which had questioned Jaimala and concluded that her claim of having been pushed into the sanctum sanctorum by the onrush of devotees appeared most illogical and implausible.

However, the whole episode could be the result of a conspiracy to justify the claim of the astrologer about the "poor state" of temple affairs, according to the probe.