Pamba: A protest was staged by Ayyappa devotees on Tuesday morning at Sannidhanam against several women due to doubts over their age.

Some devotees claimed that a woman who reached the Sannidhanam was below the age of 50 and blocked her. She also did not have Irumudi Kettu with her. The woman who felt physical discomfort was shifted to the clinic at the Sannidhanam.

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The protesters attacked some journalists who tried to take photographs during the incident. Protesters threw chairs at a video journalist while he was capturing visuals from above the sunshade of a police aid post. The police safely rescued the media person.

The police reached the spot and checked the identity proof of the women and allowed them to have darshan. Later, protesters also escorted them providing security after they came to know that they were above 50.

They performed darshan under police and protesters’s protection. Since they did not have an Irumudi Kettu, they were brought through another path to temple.

The women with their families, who reached Pamba for their grandson's chorunu (a ceremony for newborns where they are fed with rice for the first time).