Pathanamthitta: Sasikumar Varma, the Pandalam royal family representative, has raised doubts over the women from Tamil Nadu who arrived in Pamba on Sunday. He suspected that they could have links with naxals.

A group of women arrived in Pamba in the wee hours of Sunday to enter the Sabarimala temple. However, the devotees are protesting against their entry. Now, Varma has questioned the 11 women from Manithi group.

Also read: Sabarimala: Devotees protest as 11 women reach Pamb

Varma told the media that he has doubts about whether the group had observed Vrutha for 41 days.

Their arrival on the day of the procession of Thanka Anki is suspicious. We are committed to protect the temple customs. The role of top officials on it is to be probed, he said.

The women members of the Manithi team are stationed at Pampa due to massive resistance from the protesters. They are firm in their stand of visiting Sabarimala. Though the police approached them for conciliation, the team is firm in the decision to enter the shrine.

Devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran has said that the situation at Sabarimala temple has come to a standstill even as protests erupted again on Sunday.

Surendran said the Kerala high court’s three-member monitoring committee would consider new scenarios and take a decision. The state government will implement the decision, he said.

The Kerala high court has set up a monitoring team consisting of two senior judges and a senior IPS officer, specialising in Sabarimala issues. The government will implement new decisions in Sabarimala under their direction.

Meanwhile, as per latest reports, more people from Manithi group are coming to Sabarimala.

Earlier, Manithi leader Selvi had told the media that 50 women would enter the Sabarimala temple on December 23 at any cost.

Selvi said that the group had sent a letter to the chief minister’s office and received a reply that the letter had been handed over to the department concerned.

The Supreme Court verdict on September 28 allowing the entry of women of all age groups into Kerala’s Sabarimala temple had made the famous shrine a battlefield.  Women of all ages should be allowed in Kerala's renowned Sabarimala temple, the Supreme Court ordered, ending the age-old ban.