Bhoomi puja celebrations: Cops issue notices to BJP leaders

Nagpur: Five days after the celebrations for the Ram temple bhoomi puja ceremony at Ayodhya, the city police has started issuing notices of section 149 of the CrPC to members of the BJP who actively participated in the daylong events.
A delegation of legislators led by city president and BJP MLC Pravin Datke on Monday met commissioner of police Bhushan Kumar Upadhyay and expressed the party’s anguish against the city police notices to saffron leaders. “We termed the action as complete bias,” said the delegation comprising Datke, state secretary and former minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule, MLC Girish Vyas, MLAs Krishna Khopde and Vikas Kumbhare.
Bawankule also demanded that the top cop take back the police action against BJP leaders under relevant sections of the IPC. Upadhyay told TOI that the city police did the job assigned to them. DCP (special branch) Shweta Khedkar said every police station has issued section 149 of the CrPC notices to prevent cognisable offence for attending programmes via unlawful assembly. The special branch, however, has no data of how many notices have been served under section 149 of CrPc, she said.
Devotees of lord Ram had organized various programmes on August 5 to celebrate the bhoomi puja of Ram temple at Ayodhya. All the programmes were organized by following rules and regulations besides following guidelines of Covid-19, including physical distancing and use of masks, claimed the BJP functionaries.
Despite this, the city police were seen trying to play spoilsport by announcing not to play Ram dhun, no bursting of firecrackers and even advising not to use flags of lord Ram.
Datke also pointed out that initially the police stations did not give permission to hold Ram dhun and recitation of Hanuman chalisa at important junctions but later, gave the nod following pressure from citizens. However, now many party activists have received the notice under CrPC section 149 from various police stations.
In some cases, many activists received three notices exposing ‘unwarranted and excessive’ policing, the BJP leaders said.
In his memorandum, Datke also wondered why permission is required from Hindu organizations to use sound systems in any programme. “Is the city police applying similar rules for other communities too?” asked Datke. The role of city police, however, was always biased, Datke claimed.
It is a sorry state of affairs in Maharashtra if one has to seek permission to chant the name of lord Ram, the BJP contended and strongly objected to such policing, he said.
BJP Yuva morcha president Shivani Dani, Sunil Mitra, Chandan Goswami among others were present.