By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, May 7:
While the controversy over the use of loudspeakers in mosques is still ranging in Maharashtra, one person was killed and another was badly injured in a dispute over playing bhajan over the loudspeaker in neighbouring Gujarat.
Jaswant Thakor (42) was killed and his brother Ajit was badly injured when the rival group members brutally assaulted them with sticks and rods on Wednesday evening.
The deceased and his brother were reportedly playing the bhajans loudly at Meldoi Mata Mandir located near their residence at Mudarda village in Jotana Taluka of Mehsana district. However, their neighbour Sadaji Thakor reached the spot and chided them for playing the bhajan at high volume over the loudspeaker. The altercations ensued and Sadaji reportedly abused the brothers.
When Jaswant and Ajit objected to the foul language used by Sadaji, the initial arguments turned into a high decibel quarrel and Sadaji called in more people to retaliate.
Soon a group of people armed with sticks reached the scene and beat Jaswant and Ajit mercilessly. In the melee, Jaswant was badly injured. The villagers shifted him to the nearby hospital which referred him to the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital. However, he succumbed to his injuries. Ajit suffered a fracture to his left hand.
In between Ajit’s 10-year-old nephew intimated his mother about the incident, who in turn informed the police and lodged a complaint against Sadaji Thakor, Vishnu Thakor, Babuji Thakor, Jayanti Thakor, Jawan Thakor, and Vinu Thakor.
The Langhnaj police who reached the spot arrested the five accused on charges of murder, rioting, and assault. They were produced before the magistrate and were sent to jail custody on Thursday, a spokesman for the Langhnaj police said. The arrested accused have been identified as Vishnu Ravaji Thakor, Babuji Chelaji Thakor, Jayanti Ravaji Thakor, Jawanji Chelaji Thakor, and Vinuji Chelaji Thakor.
On May 02, in a similar dispute over the use of loudspeakers, one Bharat Rathod (30) was brutally assaulted in Bawla taluka of Ahmedabad in Gujarat.
However speaking to the Imphal Times, Mehsana Superintendent of Police Manish Singh said that the incident in Mudarda village arose out of personal enmity and it cannot be linked to the ongoing controversy over the use of loudspeakers in places of worship. There have been such clashes due to family disputes in that village earlier too, he added.
In another development, a division bench of the Allahabad High Court (Uttar Pradesh) dismissed a petition seeking permission for the use of loudspeakers at a mosque for azan on Wednesday. The law has now been settled that the use of loudspeakers in the mosque is not a fundamental right, a bench of Justice Vivek Kumar Birla and Justice Vikas Budhwar observed in the order on Wednesday.
The order came on a petition filed by one Irfan of Badaun district, who had moved the high court after a sub-divisional magistrate rejected his application seeking permission for playing loudspeaker/mike in a village mosque at the time of azan, in December last year
