Activist Trupti Desai detained after she threatened to block PM’s envoy
Pune based women rights activist and president of Bhumata Brigade Trupti Desai was detained by police on Friday on the ground of preventive custody after she threatened to block Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s convoy in Shirdi in Ahmednagar district if she wasn’t allowed a meeting with him.
An official informed that she is kept under detention at the Sahakar Nagar police station. “She was taken into police custody early in the morning as she had threatened to disrupt PM’s visit in Shirdi.”
Desai in a letter to the Superintendent of Police, Ahmednagar, on Thursday demanded an audience with the PM at Shirdi to discuss Supreme Court’s verdict on Sabarimala and also urged for a justification on the reason of his silence on the violent protests against women entering the temple but received no reply.
“Why is it so difficult for women to offer worship at the Lord Ayappa Temple at Sabarimala despite the Supreme Court’s verdict permitting women to offer worship inside the sanctum sanctorum? Why were women journalists beaten and assaulted? Mr. Modi has remained conspicuously silent on the issue,” she said.
Ms Desai argued that protest is a Constitutional right, “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.”
Ms Desai, speaking to The Hindu, said “No reason has been given me for this act of forcible detention. I was only told that the order had come from the Pune Police Commissioner. It is ironic that we activists who are striving for the cause temple entry for women are treated in this manner. Why couldn’t the police in Kerala take preventive measures and detain those hate mongers and trouble makers ahead of the temple entry at Sabarimala instead?”
Earlier this month on her decision to seek entry in the temple she said, “Since I welcomed the Supreme Court verdict and announced my intention to visit Sabarimala, I have been getting threats to my life. The threats haven’t stopped. I fear for my security and have decided to seek police protection.”
