A magistrate court in Pathanamthitta on Saturday denied bail to Rahul Easwar, 38, a television personality and the public face of the ‘Save Sabarimala’ campaign. He has been on a protest fast at a jail in Pathanamthitta district October 17 after the police arrested him from Sabarimala temple complex at Sannidhanam in the early hours of the day.
The jail authorities told law enforcers on Saturday that Mr. Easwar had shunned solid food since October 18 and they would shift him to a Government hospital if his health deteriorated. A medical team was due to examine him on Saturday, October 20.
The police had arrested Mr Easwar from near the Sabarimala temple complex at Sannidhanam in the early hours of October 17. Plainclothes officers hustled him away to Pampa police station, four km downhill from the ancient forest shrine. They transported him on a tractor used for hauling provisions up the rugged switchback trail leading to the temple.
Later, the police produced Mr. Easwar on the charge of inciting violence and rioting under the aegis of Ayyappa Dharma Sena (ADS), an organisation that spearheaded the Hindu right-wing campaign to prevent women of childbearing age from worshipping at Sabarimala.
The local magistrate remanded him in judicial custody for 14 days. On Saturday, a magistrate court in Pathanamthitta declined to grant Mr. Easwar bail. The police told the court that Mr. Easwar, if granted bail, was likely to return to Sabarimala to incite trouble further.
They said the newly formed ADS led by Mr. Easwar was responsible for the attacks on women, including pilgrims and journalists, in the State during the BJP sponsored general strike on October 18, 2018.
The police also said that ADS members had attacked public transport buses in Pathanamthitta and Kollam districts. They were also primarily responsible for turning back women from trekking up the forested path to the temple. Law enforcers have also named ADS members as responsible for the attack on the New York Times correspondent Suhasini Raj on the climb to Sabarimala on October 18.
Law enforcers said they were likely to extern Mr. Easwar from the pilgrimage locality under the provisions of the Kerala Police Act to any further escalation of communal tensions.
Meanwhile, Mr. Easwar’s lawyer told the magistrate that his client suffered from spinal ailments. He said Mr. Easwar was weak and had stopped drinking water and requested the magistrate to grant his client bail at the earliest on health grounds.
Mr. Easwar’s counsel also denied the police charges against his client. Mr. Easwar’s wife Deepa, a television presenter, visited the prison and spoke to her husband.