Bombay HC orders accused to clean dargah

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has directed four youths to clean the Mahim dargah and Mahim cemetery every Sunday of the month of March. The court gave the direction while hearing a petition filed by four accused booked by the Mahim police for fighting with each other during the Mahim Dargah Urs (death anniversary of a Sufi saint in South Asia). The accused had come to court to quash the FIR.

A bench of Justices B.P. Dharmadhikari and Revati Mohite-Dere took up urgent hearing of the petition filed by a 19-year-old youth from Mahim and a 22-year-old man from Dharavi. The petitioners, both Muslims, got into an altercation with two Hindu men aged 18 and 19 years, during the Mahim fair in December 2017. The altercation escalated and the four of them came to blows. A FIR was registered, charging them under various provisions for unlawful assembly and assault under the Indian Penal Code.

The maximum punishment for the charges against them ranges between six months and three years. However, all four of them eventually came to a settlement and approached the HC, seeking that the FIR be quashed by their mutual consent. They argued that considering their age and the fact that they were repentant, the court must treat them with leniency. While the bench agreed to quash the FIR, it said that all four of them would have to be part of some sort of community service. It then gave them the option of agreeing to sweep and clean the Mahim dargah.

The bench also said that since two of the men in the case were Hindus, if they wished, they could instead clean the Siddhivinayak temple in the city. All four men, however, told the bench that they had no objection to cleaning the dargah and agreed to take up the community service task.