THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Video footage shot by the Kerala police special branch — accessed by TOI on Saturday — shows three Malaysian women of Tamil origin at

on January 1, a day before Bindu Ammini and

prayed at the hill-top temple and were formally declared as the first women under 50 to have had Ayyappa darshan since the historic September 28 Supreme Court verdict.

Police have now claimed that there are

of least four more women below 50 having visited Sabarimala since January 1, taking the total number to 10. It is learnt that police have collected details of all these women, to be produced before a court of law if required.

Police sources who confirmed the Malaysian women’s visit, however, refused to divulge whether they had darshan at Sabarimala. The three women — whose identities, including name and age, are with the cops — were part of a team of 25 pilgrims belonging to the Tamil community in

.

‘Three Malaysian women visited Sabari on Jan 1’

Three Malaysian women of Tamil origin visited Sabarimala on January 1, though the visuals are those from Pamba while they were presumably returning after darshan, according to top police sources. The 14-second video, shot on a mobile phone camera, shows the three women with their faces covered with shawls.

According to sources in police, the Malaysian group visited the temple early morning on January 1 and returned to Pamba by around 10 am. On January 2 early morning, Bindu and Kanakadurga visited the temple, and visuals of their entering the shrine, escorted by plainclothes policemen, went viral.

“The Malaysian women were not stopped anywhere. There was ample video footage of the visit by Bindu, Kanakadurga and the next day by a Sri Lankan woman. But that is not so in the case of these Malaysian women. This group was not escorted by police,” a senior official said.

Around 4,200 women below the age of 50 had booked online for darshan after the SC verdict allowing equal rights for women to worship at Sabarimala, but most of them backed out after learning of widespread protests against the entry of women.

Devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran acknowledged that more women might have visited Sabarimala. Responding to reports of seven more young women – other than the officially confirmed three having visited the temple, he said that it could be true, as only those visits have come to the notice of the media have become public.