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An ashram run by a supporter of the Supreme Court’s Sabarimala verdict came under attack early on Saturday here, Kerala Police said, and announced a probe by a special team.

While Swami Sandeepananda Giri accused the BJP-RSS combine for the attack, a Sabarimala tantri family member said the monk himself set his property ablaze to implicate the saffron brigade, who in their turn named the Left party for trying to frame them for the religious fallout.

Two cars and a two-wheeler parked outside the ashram were set on fire around 2 a.m., said Giri, who was present on the premises at the time.

Giri has been taking a strong stand against the BJP-RSS combine in the state that has criticised the apex court’s September 28 verdict opening the gates of the Lord Ayyappa shrine for all women.

The attack coming amidst an ongoing crackdown on protesters who prevented women between the 10-50 age group from entering the temple between October 17 and 22, saw Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan immediately by Giri’s side.

Vijayan was accompanied by Finance Minister Thomas Issac and State Devasom Minister Kadakampally Surendran.

“The Sangh Parivar is trying to silence me for my position taken against them,” Giri told Vijayan, fearing for his life.

The Chief Minister who has taken a strong stand against any breach of the court’s verdict asked Director General of Police Loknath Behra to take immediate action.

The security at the ashram has been taken up by the police, Behra said, adding that a special team headed by Trivandrum City Commissioner P. Prakash would be investigating the attack and “nothing will be left to chance”.

Vijayan told the media at the ashram that the secular minds of Kerala were fully behind Giri. “Kerala knows the stand that the Swami has taken and is known for his secular outlook.

“Those behind this attack will be taken to task and the criminals who have done this will be brought before the law,” he said.

Rahul Eashwar, a member of the Sabarimala tantri family, who had come under attack from Giri said that it’s for the police to find out who was behind the arson.

“If the police finds out that I am responsible, then I should be arrested and if it’s found out that the Swami himself started the fire, he should be taken to task,” said Eashwar.

Senior Congress legislator K. Muraleedharan under whose constituency the ashram is located dismissed Eashwar’s statement. “I know what the Swami stands for and he will never do such a thing. This is nothing but a baseless allegation,” said Muraleedharan.

However, state Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson A.N. Radhakrishnan told the media that it’s the Communist Party of India-Marxist who has attacked the ashram.

“The CPI-M is behind this attack and propagating that we are behind it. We have no role in this,” said Radhakrishnan.

IANS

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday left for Japan to hold the annual India-Japan bilateral summit with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe.

This is Modi’s third visit to Japan for the summit and will be his 12th meeting with Abe since 2014.

Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region and in the defence and security sector, and leveraging Japanese capabilities for India’s development initiatives will be the highlights of the agenda in the summit which will be held on Monday.

India is the only country with which Japan holds annual bilateral summits while India has a similar arrangement with Russia too.

Days after quitting the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Tariq Anwar on Saturday returned to the Congress here in the presence of party President Rahul Gandhi – almost two decades after he had walked out.

Gandhi has welcomed Anwar into “the Congress family”, the party tweeted posting a picture of the two leaders shaking hands.

Anwar had quit the NCP and his Lok Sabha membership on September 28 expressing disagreement with party chief Sharad Pawar whom he has been upset with for giving a clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Rafale deal.

Anwar had in 1999 joined NCP chief Sharad Pawar and some others in quitting the Congress to protest against the appointment of a person of foreign origin – Sonia Gandhi being appointed the party chief.

 Former Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly and a founding member of the Trinamool Congress, Pankaj Banerjee, passed away late on Friday.

Banerjee, 71, a three-time legislator, is survived by his wife and daughter.

A product of the student movement, Banerjee joined the Congress in the 1960s, and won his first election from the Tollygunge constituency in South Kolkata in 1972.

A marine engineer by profession, he later won from the same constituency in 1996 on a Congress ticket, and in 2001 as a candidate of the Trinamool Congress.

With the Trinamool emerging as the largest opposition party in 2001, Banerjee became the leader of the opposition, and served in that capacity till 2006.

However, he surprisingly announced his retirement from politics in 2006, in the run up to the assembly polls, citing poor health.

But many still believe that Banerjee had called it quits over some differences with party supremo Mamata Banerjee.

The leader’s death, however, saw a high drama.

After a private hospital announced his death, and his ‘body’ was brought home, a family doctor examined him and claimed that his heart was beating.

By then, the Chief Minister had twitted a condolence message expressing her shock over Banerjee’s demise.

The tweet was soon erased and Banerjee was rushed to another private hospital, where doctors declared him dead.

Later, the AMRI Hospital, where Banerjee was first taken, claimed that its doctors “were under no confusion over his demise” as two ECG graphs – the first one conducted on him in the ambulance on way to the hospital – had shown flat line,” indicating “that he expired even before he had reached the hospital”.

“Since protocol demanded that if admitted, Banerjee’s body had to undergo a post-mortem examination, accompanying family and friends decided to take the body back to his residence,” the hospital said in a statement.

IANS