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Kannada actress Jayamala, who has been chargesheeted by Kerala police following her controversial claim that she had touched the idol of Lord Ayyappa at the famous Sabarimala temple, on Tuesday said she would decide on her "legal option" once she receives a copy of it.
"I am yet to receive a copy of the chargesheet. I came to know about it only through the media. Once I get the copy of the chargesheet and see what charges have been framed against me, I will consult my lawyer and decide upon the appropriate legal option," she said.
The Kerala police on Tuesday filed a chargesheet against the actress, four years after she made the controversial claim of touching Lord Ayyappa's idol at the Sabarimala temple, in violation of the hill shrine custom.
Fifty-year old Jayamala has been listed as the third accused after astrologer Parappanangadi Unnikrishnan and his Begaluru-based aide Raghupathy for their alleged "deliberate and malicious act to outrage" religious sentiments by hatching a conspiracy involving her.
The chargesheet was filed in the first-class judicial magistrate court at Ranni in Pathanamthitta District.
The 'revelation' by the actress in June 2006 raised a storm. A crime branch probe found that it was only a "conspiracy" hatched by the astrologer and his aide. The chargesheet said the accused were involved in a deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings under section 295 of Indian Penal Code.
Jayamala, a former president of Karnataka film chamber of commerce, had claimed she had in her prime youth entered the temple and touched the idol of the presiding deity.
Women, who fall in the ten to 50 age bracket, are barred from entering the temple. She had faxed her claim to the temple administration office when an astrological examination of the conduct of the temple affairs, known in local parlance as deva prasnam, was on by Unnikrishnan.