BJP Hartal For Sabarimala ‘Martyr’, But He Wasn’t Killed by Police
BJP says Sadasivan was killed in a police lathicharge on 17 October. His wife says she spoke to him on 19 October.
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The BJP observed a hartal on Friday, 2 November, in the Pathanamthitta district of Kerala, where the Sabarimala hill shrine is situated. The reason? The “brutal murder” of Ayyappan Sivadasan, who the party claims was killed in the police lathicharge on 16 and 17 October at the Nilakkal base camp of Sabarimala.
However, Sivadasan’s wife, Lalitha, in a TV interview, said he actually left home on 18 October and had called her on the night of 19 October.
The interview can be watched from 0:30.
She also said that after she filed a missing persons complaint, police did not investigate seriously.
Sivadasan’s body was found on Thursday, 1 November, around 16 kilometres away from Nilakkal. Police suspect it to be a case of accident.
‘Pinarayi Vijayan Laughs When Devotees Are Killed’
“When an Ayyappa devotee dies, Pinarayi Vijayan laughs like a mafia don,” wrote BJP state president Sridharan Pillai on Facebook on 1 November.
“Pinarayi’s police beat Sivadasan to death when he was travelling to Sabarimala on his cycle with Ayyappan’s photo on it…the police officers responsible must be booked for murder. This is the communist government’s conspiracy to extinguish the light of Sabarimala. They want to trample the majority community,” Pillai wrote.
Another senior BJP leader in the state, K Surendran, also wrote on similar lines on Facebook:
“Pinarayi Vijayan is responsible for this murder. Sri Sivadasan, who made the ultimate sacrifice for saving Ayyappa dharma, your martyrdom will be remembered as long as there is Ayyappa dharma. When the temple opens on 5 November, the Pinarayi police will do this and more. Even if he kills thousands, Pinarayi Vijayan will not get what he wants.”
Sivadasan Died of Blood Loss After Breaking His Femur: Post-Mortem
The post-mortem conducted on Sivadasan’s body has revealed that he died following blood loss after he fractured his femur, Asianet News reported. The report says his femur had broken into two and that may have been the result of a fall.
Asianet News also reported that no other major injuries were found in other parts of his body.
The report further weakens the BJP’s claim that Sivadasan died in a lathicharge.
The hartal went on as usual and the BJP has not officially responded to the charge that its ‘martyr’ was not a martyr after all.
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