India, Jan. 3 -- Pradeep Kokare, the winner of the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar 2025, was stopped on Friday by the police from entering the Sahitya Sammelan venue for a curious reason: the colour of his apparel. "I've been attending Marathi sahitya sammelans since 2019, but never have I been stopped because I was wearing black," said the furious 29-year-old writer.

After a 15-minute argument with the police, Kokare, a senior editor with the famous publishing house Popular Prakashan, entered the venue anyway. "I wasn't interested in the inauguration; I wanted to meet readers at the two stalls we had put up," he said.

The police, said Kokare, gave no logical reason for objecting to his clothes. "When I told them that the state government...