Members of several rightwing outfits took to the streets on Saturday, forcing around 180 meat shops to shut down during the ongoing 9-day Navratri festival.
Members of the Hindu Sena brandishing batons, hockey sticks, swords and iron rods were seen pulling down shutters of multiple meat and chicken outlets.
The outfits shut down hundreds of meat shops and threatened the shopkeepers at the Sheetla Colony, Sanjay Gram Palam Vihar, Badshahpur, Om Vihar, Surat Nagar, Sadar Bazar, Anaj Mandi, Dhanwapur, Dundahera, Molaheda, Sikandarpur and many other places and forced meat sellers to shut shops.
In connection with the matter, a case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered against the culprits at Udyog Vihar police station. The police have arrested two culprits identified as Rajesh alias Cheeka and Pramod of Dundahera village.
“It is illegal to forcibly close licensee meat shops in the city we will not allow anyone to disrupt law and order situation in the district. We have deployed police personnel at prominent markets so that (meat) shop owners don’t feel threatened,” a senior police officer said.
Members of the outfit claimed they had issued a fresh reminder to the district administration and Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) to prevent a sale of meat during Navratri, earlier in the week, but the same was ignored.
“We had requested the district administration to do not allow opening meat shops during Navratri. Since they continued to ignore our requests, we asked meat shop owners to down shutters at various parts of the city on Saturday. We will continue to carry out this drive,” a member of Shiv Sena’s Gurugram unit said.
Apart from the raw meat sellers, the organisation had also served notices to the non-vegetarian hotels and eateries, including food chains like KFC, to shut shops during Navratri, he added.
“I shut shop after some Hindu members forced to do this. We will raise this issue in front of the district administration, whatever they will say we will follow their instructions,” Imran Malik, a meat shop owner, said.
However, some meat shop owners say they don’t have a problem with the demands. “We have no information regarding the selling meat during Navratri. But we respect religious sentiments. So we have no objection to keeping his shop closed,” Rashid Khan, a meat seller in Sector 13 said.