Temple tragedy: Woman committee member seeks interim bail

Kollam: While the seven arrested committee members of the Kerala's Puttingal Devi temple in Paravur town have been remanded to judicial custody, a woman committee member and a few others are now trying to get anticipatory bail.

Rajitha is the only woman in the 15-member temple committee.

The crime branch police team is investigating and keeping a close watch on the hiding committee members, as it wants to nab them before they could move their application for an anticipatory bail.

It was on early Sunday that an 'illegal' fireworks display was conducted as part of the annual celebrations of the temple that left 113 people dead, injuring over 350.

Since the incident, the temple's 15-member committee was on the run. On late Monday night, five of them were picked up by police and another two were later arrested on Tuesday morning and late last night. All of them were remanded to judicial custody.

Speaking to IANS, additional director general of police S. Ananthakrishnan, who is leading the crime branch probe, said the seven have been remanded to judicial custody.

"Our probe is going on and we are looking into each and every aspect. Fixing culpability of the crime is an aspect that has to be done carefully and right now we are not in a position to fix that. We are unable to say who all are responsible and who is not," said Ananthakrishnan.