Minor girls covered with garlands

However, an online news portal, based at Coimbatore, had reported that since the girls were kept half naked for 14 continuous days, it amounted to child abuse. 

Following that Madurai Collector, K Veera Raghav Rao, had formed a committee which visited the village on Monday to inquire into the incident. Police officials also held meeting with the temple officials. The officials said that minor girls cannot be paraded half dressed and it is a crime. The temple management sought exemption for this year and assured that they would ask the girls to cover their upper body from next year. 

Officials accepted the arguments but instructed them to cover the girls properly during the procession. As instructed, the girls were made to wear more than 10 garlands to cover their front part of their body and their hair was spread loose to cover their back.

Further, the family members covered the girls to prevent others from seeing them. 

The online portal and the reporter who carried the news received threats through social media and over phone. The persons asked the online portal to remove the news from their site. However, the reporter and the management of online portal launched a complaint with the Cyber Crime Police at Coimbatore and demanded action against the online abusers.