Arunima Sinha, former national level volleyball player and the first amputee to scale Mount Everest, said she felt “greater pain” while visiting the Mahakal Temple here than scaling the Everest.
Recounting her unpleasant experience at the temple yesterday, she said her disability was mocked at.
“I am very sorry to tell you that I felt greater pain in visiting Mahakal temple (at Ujjain) than scaling the Everest. My disability was mocked at there (at Mahakal),” she said on Twitter.
मुझे आपको ये बताते हुए बहुत दुःख है की मुझे Everest जाने में इतना दुःख नहीं हुआ जीतना मुझे महाकाल मंदिर उज्जैन में हुआ वहाँ मेरी दिव्यंगता का मज़ाक़ बना । @PMOIndia @CMMadhyaPradesh
— Arunima Sinha (@sinha_arunima) December 25, 2017
Sinha also tagged the Prime Minister’s Office and the Chief Minister’s Office in her tweet. Temple sources said the sports person was stopped twice by security personnel while trying to enter the sanctum sanctorum of the temple and that she broke down while arguing with them.
Mahakal Temple’s administrator Avdhesh Sharma said that he came to know about the incident only through media reports.
“I have come to know about this from media reports. Arunima has not filed any complaint with the police or the temple administration,” he said. “There is a ramp for the disabled and I will ask the security personnel why they stopped her. We are also checking the CCTV footage to identify the guilty,” the temple administrator added.
Sinha was pushed out of a running train in April, 2011, while resisting a robbery attempt. As a result, one of her legs had to be amputated below the knee.
