Cops foil women's fresh attempt to reach Trimbakeshwar temple

Women activists, led by Trupti Desai of Bhumata Brigade, fighting for breaking gender bias at places of worship, today made a fresh bid to proceed towards Trimbakeshwar temple near here but were detained by police and later allowed to return to Pune.
Desai, who heads Bhumata Brigade, and about 150-175 activists had yesterday left Pune for the famous Lord Shiva shrine in a bid to break the ban on entry of female devotees into sanctum sanctorum.
They were, however, stopped and detained by the police at Nandurshingote village, about 80 km from the temple town.
At 2 am today, they were allowed to return to Pune but they returned to the spot three hours later and made a fresh attempt to proceed towards Trimbakeshwar.

However, the police personnel present there prevented them, an official attached to Wavi police station said.
Desai was accompanied by a few activists today and police detained them till 2 pm and then allowed them to leave for Pune, he said.

Desai has been leading the protest seeking to end gender bias at some religious places in Maharashtra.
On January 26, she had taken out a march to the famous Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district seeking access for women to its sacred platform.
However, the police had foiled their bid and detained them at a village 70 km away from the shrine.

As per age-old tradition, women are not allowed in Trimbakeshwar temple's garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum) while men are allowed for an hour (between 6 am to 7 am) but wearing sovala (a silk dhoti) for offering pooja to Lord Shiva.