The Pune police on Friday, detained activist Trupti Desai, ahead of her proposed meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Shirdi. Modi is scheduled to visit Maharashtra's popular temple town of Shirdi, to participate in functions marking the conclusion of the year-long Saibaba Samadhi centenary programme organised by the Sai temple trust.
According to reports, Desai had written a letter to the Ahmednagar Superintendent of Police, seeking permission to meet Modi at Shirdi to discuss the recent Supreme Court verdict on Sabarimala. Desai had threatened to intercept the Prime Minister’s convoy if she wasn’t given permission. Desai told ANI, “The police was already here this morning as we were about to leave for Shirdi. It is wrong. It is our Constitutional right to protest. We are being stopped at home only. It is an attempt to suppress our voice.”
The Supreme Court recently lifted the ban on entry of women of menstrual age into Kerala's Sabarimala temple. Desai who had hailed the apex court’s verdict, said she intended on visiting the temple in Kerala this season. She had said that she was receiving death threats on social media after she announced her decision to visit the shrine.
As the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala opened for the the five-day monthly poojas for the Malayalam month of Thulam on Wednesday evening, protests intensified against the Supreme Court verdict allowing women of all age groups to enter the hill shrine.
Nilakkal and Pamba, the two major base camps of Sabarimala pilgrimage, witnessed violent protests after the agitators pelted stones at police personnel and vehicles, including state transport buses carrying devotees. In the wake of the intensifying protests, Pathanamthitta district administration has imposed Section 144 at Elavunkal, Nilakkal, Pamba and Sannidhanam (temple complex and its premises) on Thursday.
-inputs from PTI
