Mumbai: During Diwali, Mira Road resident Saket Gokhale made several telephonic complaints to the local police station as well as the state police’s control room against the use of noisy loudspeakers during a religious programme allegedly being organised in the area by the Shiv Sena beyond the permissible 6 am-10 pm limit, but nothing came of it. Mr Gokhale, on the other hand, said he received a call from a local Shiv Sena leader who “politely” advised him against making such complaints. The fact that the police had breached his confidentiality by sharing his telephone number with the Sena leader has made Mr Gokhale suspect that it may have put him in harm’s way.
Mr Gokhale had made calls to the Kashimira police, who informed him that they had sent police teams to the spot but the organisers of the event had not paid any heed to their instructions to take down the loudspeakers. Mr Gokhale’s 90-year-old grandmother stays with him and was considerably bothered by the noise, he said. Superintendent of police of Thane (rural), Mahesh Patil, said he would meet Mr Gokhale soon. “Also, I will ask Kashimira police station officers about who had spoken to the complainant and will take necessary action against those officers may have given him ignorant answers,” he said.
Mr Gokhale shared details of his ordeal in a Facebook post.
The Facebook post of complainant Saket Gokhale.
“A religious programme is being organised by the Shiv Sena deputy city head Jairam Messe, near my mother’s house at Mira Road. They play loudspeakers at full volume way past midnight and I call the cops every night to complain,” he said.
“On Wednesday morning I got a call from an unknown number. It was the local Shiv Sena leader who organised this programme. He was polite and asked me to “compromise” for another couple of days. He evoked the upcoming Chhat Puja festival of Biharis and said ‘no one complains about that, so the programme organised by Maharashtrians should also be accommodated,’” Mr Gokhale said.
Mr Messe denied Mr Gokhale’s allegations. “Everything ends around 10.30 pm. We start playing songs at around 4.30 am in normal sound, we have installed a mandap for the same. I don’t think the loudspeaker volumes exceed the permissible levels. I don’t remember the police coming here and asking us to reduce the volume.”
