Cops deny disabled woman’s charges at Madurai temple

MADURAI: The Madurai police responding to a video posted on social media by a physically challenged woman from Dharmapuri that she had to undergo great ordeal at the hands of cops and staff before having darshan of deities at Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple, said all the allegations made by her were baseless.

A differently abled woman, identified as Tamilselvi (48) of Dharmapuri, in the video posted on social media claimed that she came with her relatives to offer prayers at Meenakshi temple in Madurai.

She alleged that the police on duty at the entrance of the shrine first prevented her from entering the temple at 9.30 am, on August 6 (Tuesday) and some personnel from the temple also demanded money from her to arrange for a wheelchair.

She was also forced to meet various officials to get a wheelchair, with an intention to squeeze out money from her. However, the Madurai City police rejected her charges and issued a detailed statement on Wednesday explaining the entire episode.

The police said that following the claims made in the video, an inquiry was conducted. During the investigations it came to light that Tamilselvi entered through West Tower of the temple.

As she carried a pen knife in her bag, cops advised her to keep the bag containing knife at cloak room before entering the temple. Tamilselvi left the bag at the cloak room and entered the temple with her relatives.

The police also asked the temple personnel to remove her footwear from the artificial limb and help the woman get a wheelchair to visit the shrines of different deities. The devotee was then taken inside to all the shrines on a wheel-chair and she came out at 12.30 pm, after having anna dhanam.