God, Not Again

First Jayamala, a Kannada actress, said she had been inside the sanctum sanctorum of the men-only Sabarimala temple. Now it’s the main priest’s alleged dalliance with a Kochi woman that has raked up a controversy. It all started with head priest Kantararu Mohanararu’s police complaint that he was assaulted by a gang, robbed of money and made to pose with a woman. But the police came out with the shocking allegation that Mohanararu had been frequenting a shady apartment in Kochi to meet a woman. The Travancore Devaswom Board, which administers the temple, relieved the priest of his duties. The Mohanararu camp says the relationship between the priest, who belongs to the Thazhamon family with hereditary rights to the temple, and the Devaswom Board had been on a collision course for some time now. It seems we haven’t heard the last of the sordid tales associated with a temple that gets Rs 100 crore a year as offerings.