Woman faces online abuse after announcing plans to visit Sabarimala

Agencies
October 15, 2018

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 15: Amid raging protests over the Sabarimala issue, a Keralite woman, who announced her decision to offer prayers at the Lord Ayyappa shrine, Monday complained that she was being slut-shamed and subjected to threats and abuses on social media.

Emboldened by the Supreme Court order permitting entry of women of all age groups into the hill temple, Reshma Nishanth, a 32-year-old native of Kannur district, recently put a Facebook post stating that she would visit the shrine.

On September 28, a five-judge Constitution bench, headed by then Chief Justice Dipak Misra, lifted the ban on the entry of women of menstrual age into the shrine.

Claiming to be a staunch devotee of Lord Ayyappa, Reshma said she had already started the 41-day 'vrata' (penance) to trek to the forest temple during the annual pilgrimage season beginning on November 17.

She also started wearing the 'bead chain' with the locket of Lord Ayyappa as part of the customary rituals before proceeding to Sabarimala.

"A large number of people have extended support to my decision to visit the shrine. But, slut-shaming and body shaming are also going on against me," she said.

"Soon after I announced my wish and decision to offer prayers at the Ayyappa temple, threats and abusive comments are flooding the social media platforms," she said.

A group of people, suspected to be people who oppose the implementation of the Supreme Court order, Sunday had raised slogans in front of her house and threatened that she would not be allowed to enter Sabarimala at any cost.

However, an unperturbed Reshma Nishanth said the apex court had granted permission for women devotees like her to visit the hill shrine and expressed hope that the state government and police would provide necessary protection to her.

Besides her, some other young women would also accompany her during the pilgrimage, she added.

Reshma said her husband Nishanth, a local bank employee and other family members were all supportive of her decision.

Bindhu, a young homemaker from northern Kozhikode district, Monday said, she along with 30 other women are planning to visit Sabarimala during the three-month-long Mandala-Makaravilakku season.

Kerala has been witnessing intense protests includingprayer marches and mass rallies by Lord Ayyappa devotees and right wing outfits against the implementation of the apex court verdict lifting the age restriction on women to visit the hill shrine.

The Shiv Sena's state unit recently warned of "mass suicides" if women of the "banned" age group visits Sabarimala.

Police have booked actor-turned-BJP supporter, Kollam Thulashi for his controversial remarks that "women in the restricted age group who visit the Lord Ayappa Temple should be ripped apart." 

Senior state minister E P Jayarajan Monday said the CPI(M)led-LDF government would provide necessary security to all believers who wish to trek to the holy hill and offer prayers at the temple.

A Padmakumar, president of Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), which manages the shrine, told PTI that he was not ready to comment anything on the matter right now.

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News Network
May 9,2020

New Delhi, May 9: A 23-year-old woman allegedly committed suicide at the AIIMS here after her mother died of cancer at the hospital, police said on Saturday.

She was reported missing after her mother passed away on Wednesday and her body was found near the new private ward block of the hospital on Saturday, they said, adding that she fell to her death from a building.

"Her mother was a cancer patient. She was being treated at the hospital and had died during treatment on Wednesday," Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Atul Kumar Thakur said.

Her father was busy in the formalities when she left the area. She was reported missing since Wednesday. The family hails from Moradabad district of Uttar Pradesh, a senior police officer said.

Hospital staff noticed the body and informed the police. The block was closed due to which nobody found out about it earlier, police said.

Police said she had called her friends and told them that she was going to kill herself. The body has been recovered and an inquest proceeding is underway.

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News Network
February 6,2020

Kochi, Feb 6: A 46-year-old Thailand national was allegedly raped by two men here, following which they were arrested, police said on Thursday.

The accused hailing from a north Kerala district have been arrested on the basis of a complaint lodged by the woman.

Police said the accused-- Mohammed Insaf and his friend Ansaruddin from Kondotty in Malappuram district were arrested after recording the statement of the victim.

The woman from Thailand had been a Facebook friend of Insaf for the last seven months after she enrolled her child in a school in Malappuram district.

The woman who came from Bangkok recently to visit her child and was staying in a hotel here.

When Insaf came to meet the woman, he was accompanied by his friend Ansaruddin and both allegedly raped the woman at the hotel room, police said.

All formalities including medical examination of the woman were completed, police said.

The accused will be produced before the court on Thursday, they added.

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News Network
February 10,2020

Mumbai, Feb 10: Ankita Pisudde, a resident of Hinganghat town in Wardha, was critical after sustaining 40% burns on February 3 when she was set afire, allegedly by one Vikesh Nagrale (27) while she was on her way to college.

The 25-year-old woman lecturer who was set on fire by a stalker in Maharashtra’s Wardha district last week died at a hospital in Nagpur on Monday morning, a police official said.

Ankita Pisudde, resident of Hinganghat town in Wardha, had been critical after sustaining 35 to 40% “grade III” burns on February 3 when she was set afire allegedly by one Vikesh Nagrale (27) while she was on way to her college, they said.

She was undergoing treatment at the Orange City Hospital & Research Centre here, located around 75 km from Wardha.

“Doctors at the hospital declared her dead at 6.55 a.m. today,” Hinganghat’s police inspector Satyaveer Bandiwar said.

The woman sustained deep burn injuries on scalp, face, right upper limb, left hand, upper back, neck and eyes along with severe inhalational injuries, the hospital said in a medical bulletin on Monday.

She died of “septicemic shock” after suffering from deep dermal burns along with severe inhalational injuries, respiratory distress and related complications, it said.

Around 4 a.m. on Monday, her oxygen levels deteriorated inspite of ventilator support, coupled with decreasing urine output and reduction in blood pressure, the hospital said.

As part of immediate resuscitation measures, medicines were escalated to maintain the blood pressure and all feasible steps were taken to improve the oxygen levels in blood, but the patient remained “extremely critical”, it said.

“Around 6.30 a.m., she had bradycardia and inspite of prolonged cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the patient could not be revived and was declared dead at 6.55 a.m.,” it said.

The probable cause of death was “septicemic shock”, the bulletin added.

During her treatment, she underwent tracheostomy (creating an opening in neck to place a tube into the windpipe to allow air to enter the lungs), burn dressings, debridement and escharotomies, the hospital informed.

Debridement is a medical procedure to remove dead, damaged or infected tissue, while escharotomy is a surgical procedure used to treat full-thickness (third-degree) circumferential burns.

The woman’s parents and uncle were kept informed about her deteriorating health condition and death, the hospital said, adding that the body was later handed over to police for postmortem and other formalities.

After the woman’s condition deteriorated, the hospital informed about her critical status to Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, Wardha Guardian Minister Sunil Kedar, Nagpur Divisional Commissioner Sanjeev Kumar, Police Commissioner Bhushan Kumar Upadhyay, Wardha Collector Vivek Bhimanwar and Wardha Superintendent of Police Basavraj Teli.

Heavy security was deployed in Hinganghat to avoid any law and order problem following her death, the police said.

Several locals, mostly women and college students, took out a march in Wardha city last Thursday, demanding death penalty for the accused.

Home Minister Deshmukh visited the hospital on Tuesday and announced that the accused’s trial would be fast-tracked.

The State government last week flew Navi Mumbai-based National Burns Centre director Sunil Keswani to Nagpur to supervise the woman’s treatment.

It has also appointed well-known lawyer Ujjwal Nikam as special public prosecutor in the case.

According to the victim’s relatives, Nagrale, who was arrested within hours of the incident on February 3, had been harassing her for quite some time.

Nagrale and the woman were friends till two years ago when she severed ties with him due to his “irrational behaviour”, the police earlier said.

A special team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police Trupti Jadhav will probe the case, the Wardha Police said last week.

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