CHENNAI: A journalist received threats on social media for exposing the bizarre temple ritual in Madurai where semi-undress teenaged and younger girls are forced to live inside a temple for over two weeks under the supervision of a priest.
AR Meyyammai, who wrote the story on 24 September for The Covai Poston, a Coimbatore-based news portal received intimidating phone calls, soon after the report went live forcing her to lodge a formal complaint with the IT cell.
According to the temple’s tradition, the priest of the Yezhaikaatha Amman temple at Velalur have a free hand over choosing seven girls between the ages of 10-14 from 62 villages and ‘offered’ them to the deity.
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The Covai Post website was bombarded with threatening phone calls, hate and abuses calls.
“I had to switch off my phone as there was a volley of life threats and several hate calls ever since we posted the story and Madurai district administration reached the spot to probe,” Vidyashree Dharmaraj, editor-in-chief of Covai Post told Hindustan Times.
