My disability was mocked, says amputee mountaineer

Ujjain: Arunima Sinha, former national level volleyball player and the first amputee to scale the Mount Everest, Monday said she felt “greater pain” while visiting the Mahakal Temple here than scaling the Everest.

“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 and 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 of the temple on Sunday and that she broke down while arguing with them. “I have come to know about this from media reports. Arunima has not filed any complaint with the police or the temple administration,” Mahakal Temple’s administrator Avdhesh Sharma 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,” he added. Arunima 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.