Thiruvananthapuram: The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) has given an additional time of two weeks to Sabarimala thantri Kandararu Rajeevaru to give an explanation regarding the purification rituals performed at the famous shrine.

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On January 2, Rajeevaru of the Sabarimala temple had closed the doors of the shrine for performing Suddhikalasam (purification rites) after it was confirmed that two women entered the temple through the back gate and had the darshan of Lord Ayyappa.

The women who entered the temple were identified as Bindu from Kozhikode and Kanakadurga from Malappuram.

Earlier, on December 24, Bindu and Kanakadurga attempted to visit the shrine for the first time, but were taken back by the police due to security issues.

The state commission for Scheduled Caste and Tribe Commission (SC/ST) has issued a show cause notice to Sabarimala thantri for performing purification rituals.

The commission member S Ajaya Kumar informed this matter via Facebook. As one of the women, who entered Sabarimala was a Dalit, the rituals performed by the thantri can be considered as pure ‘untouchability’ and the notice was sent due to that, he said.

The notice had asked the thantri to appear for hearing on January 17. As he did not appear before the commission, the show cause notice was sent, he said.

Meanwhile, the Kerala high court will consider the plea questioning Devaswom Board’s action of issuing show cause notice to the thantri seeking explanation on closing the temple, on Monday. The plea was filed by V Ranjith Shankar from Bengaluru.

Earlier, the Devaswom Board president A Padma Kumar also seriously criticised the thantri Rajeevaru for closing the temple and performing purification rituals.

On January 2, a massive protest was witnessed in front of the Travancore Devaswom Board office for questioning the thantri. The board alleged that they were not aware of the decision to close the temple and thus they sought an explanation from the thantri. The board also said that necessary action would be taken.