KOCHI: The closure of Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) during daytime for recarpeting of the runway seems to have spoiled the plans of Kochi city police to send back activist Trupti Desai and five others who came to visit the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala.
Sources said the next Indigo flight to Pune from Kochi is at 7.15 pm and the police are likely to send her back on the same. Trupti Desai, however, is adamant that she would not return before visiting the hill shrine.
As of now, Trupti, the founder of the Pune-based Bhoomatha Brigade and five activists, also from the same organization, have been kept at the Kochi City Commissionerate after police informed them that they will not provide protection for the women to trek to the sacred hill temple. Activists of the Brigade have been inside the Commissionerate for over nine hours now.
Trupti said the Bhoomatha Brigade members will visit Sabarimala temple without protection. The police, have, however, refused the group's demand citing law and order issues. She is now demanding a written document from police stating they did not provide protection for the group.
"We will visit Sabarimala temple on Tuesday, on Constitution Day. Neither the state government nor the police can stop us from visiting the temple," she told reporters. According to her, she came for the darshan on the basis of the Supreme Court verdict allowing the entry for women of all ages into the temple. Denying her access to the temple will be against Constitutional rights, she said.
Other members of the Bhoomatha Brigade are Meenakshi Ramachandra Shinde, Maneesha Tilakar, Harinashvi Maya, Jagadguru Sankaracharya Trikal Bavanda Saraswathi Maharaj Gayatri, and Chaya Virodahar, later accompanied by Bindu Ammini who managed to enter the temple last year.
Trupti had made an unsuccessful attempt to enter the temple in November 2018, weeks after the Supreme Court lifted the ban on the entry of women between the age of 10 and 50. She had to stay Kochi airport for several hours following stiff opposition from devotees.