Trupti Desai, leader of the Bhumata Brigade, being dragged away by police during an attempt to offer prayers at the Shani Shingnapur temple, on Saturday. (Express Photo)
After being prevented from offering worship in the core shrine area of the Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district on Sunday, the Trupti Desai-led Bhumata Brigade has decided to file a contempt of court case in the Bombay High Court against Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his government. The Chief Minister’s Office, however, stated, “Let them to go to court. The government will file its side in court.”
Desai, who along with four other members of the Bhumata Brigade suffered injuries in yesterday’s scuffle with hundreds of villagers, after returning to Pune on Sunday, said, “We are lucky to have survived. Hundreds of villagers charged at us menacingly. We would have died yesterday…”
We were attacked, said Desai, because the state government did not issue instructions to the local administration and the police to ensure the women gain access to the inner sanctum sanctorum. “Despite the Bombay High Court order, the chief minister and his government did nothing to ensure our safe access to the core shrine area.
The High Court had ruled that it was the ‘fundamental duty of the state to protect the fundamental right of the women to offer worship’,” she said.
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The Bhumata Brigade now plans to file a contempt of court case against the state government on Tuesday. “However, we hope that the court notices the newspaper reports and take suo motu cognizance of what happened at Shingnapur Saturday,” she said.
Praveen Pardeshi, principal secretary to the Chief Minister, said the district collector and police had been directed to ensure the implementation of the court order. “The government respects equality of men and women. The court order relates to ensuring access to the temple. The court had said that where men are allowed, women should also be allowed. So it is being followed,” he said.
Narrating their plight, Desai said when they entered the temple there were over 2,000 villagers who tried raised slogans against them, heckled them and tried to stop them from marching ahead. “The charged at us menancingly, several women scratched us, they pulled our hands, pushed us back forcefully. The police held me by the neck. We were dragged to the waiting police vehicle. Two of us were dragged by the hair by the villagers,” said Desai, adding that it was because of media presence in the area that they were alive today.
The atmosphere was so charged, said Desai, that they were lucky the survived it all. “The way the villagers were reacting we would have been lynched,” alleged Desai.
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Manisha Tilekar, a member of the Bhumata Brigade, said,”No effort was made by the police to stop the belligerent villagers from charging at us. Anything could have happened. It is now clear that the government had no intention to allow us to exercise our fundamental right to pray.”
Desai said they have filed complaint against the villagers with Supa police station.
The case has transferred to Shingnapur police.
API Prashant Mandale of Shingnapur police said they wil check the video-footage before taking any action in the matter.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
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Trupti Desai, leader of the Bhumata Brigade, being dragged away by police during an attempt to offer prayers at the Shani Shingnapur temple, on Saturday. (Express Photo)
