Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government on Saturday rejected Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar’s claim that animal sacrifice was carried out near a temple in north Kerala targeting him, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the Congress government.
Kerala Devaswom Minister K Radhakrishnan said Shivakumar has made a serious allegation targeting Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the Congress government and him (Shivakumar) himself over the animal sacrifice near the Rajarajeswara Temple at Taliparamba in the state’s Kannur district.
The minister said, “We have investigated the claim and also contacted the Malabar Devaswom Board. According to the initial report we have received, nothing like this has happened in or around the temple. The Devaswom Board has also confirmed it.” He said that there should be an investigation into why Shivkumar made such an allegation.
Radhakrishnan also said that the government was investigating whether anything like the allegations made by the Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister had happened elsewhere in Kerala, but preliminary investigations revealed that no such incident had taken place in the state.
He also said that animal sacrifice has been legally banned since 1968 and hence it is not possible in Kerala. The management committee of the concerned temple on Friday denied Shivkumar’s allegations and called his claims 100 percent false.
The special branch has also given a report to the state police chief stating that there is no evidence of any animal sacrifice near any temple in Kerala. Shivakumar had claimed on Thursday that a ritual called ‘Shatru Bhairavi Yajna’, which involves animal sacrifice, was performed at a temple in Kerala targeting him (Shivakumar), Siddaramaiah and the Congress government in Karnataka.
Without revealing anyone’s name, he had alleged that some political people in Karnataka had got such rituals done and for this, advice was being taken from Aghoris.