The Kerala High Court on Thursday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Malayalam actor Kollam Thulasi who was booked for making derogatory statements against women entering Sabarimala. The court asked Thulasi to appear before investigating officials in the case, according to reports.
In October 2018, the actor while addressing a public rally in Kollam said that women who attempted to enter Sabarimala should be ‘ripped in two.’ “One half should be sent to Delhi and the other half should be thrown at Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s office,” the actor remarked.
“The mothers (elderly woman) taking part in the protest against the judgment should go to Sabarimala. Then those women should rip apart the ones who try to enter the temple," he said.
Thulasi who is a member of the BJP had also fought the 2016 assembly elections from Kundra in Kollam. BJP state president PS Sreedharan Pillai too was present at the rally when Thulasi declared these statements.
He made his comments with regard to women entering Sabarimala following the September 28 Supreme Court verdict lifting the ban on women entering the temple.
Following the verdict, several right-wing groups began protesting for a change in the verdict. In January, two women – Bindu and Kanakadurga - entered Sabarimala and prayed at the sanctum sanctorum following a 3-month impasse. The women are now in hiding as protestors are up in arms against them for daring to enter the temple.
Thulasi had earlier got into a controversy for supporting actor Dileep, an accused in the case of kidnap and sexual assault of a Malayalam woman actor in 2017.