New Delhi: Members of the Hindu Sena allegedly took to forcibly shut down meat shops in the Najafgarh area here, saying that they should not remain open during a festival like Navratri. However, the Delhi Police have said they have received no complaints in this regard.
Hindu Sena national president Vishnu Gupta said, "Our workers went to Najafgarh on Wednesday and today also to close the meat shops in Som Bazaar market. Every year, we ask the meat shop owners in Gurgaon area also to close their shops during Navratri."
Stressing that the shops should remain closed in order to respect the sentiments of majority community, he said it was not clear whether the men in the viral video belonged to Hindu Sena.
"It was submitted that the video tweeted was of Tuesday and of a meat market in Najafgarh, opposite Don Bosco School. This market remains closed on Tuesday. In the video, no shop is being closed by anyone as the shops were already closed. Further, no complaint or PCR calls were received in the matter at Najafgarh police station, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) Shankar Choudhary said.
In the viral video which shows groups of people forcibly shutting down shops, members claim that these shops are not allowed to open during the ten days of Navratri.
A person in the video can be heard, saying: Navratri is going on and almost everyone has closed their meat shops in Som Bazaar. We received information that one or two shops were open which have been closed by our team. The meat market of Najafgarh will remain closed during Navratri. This is Hindu dominated area and this type of work should not be done.
To take consideration of the sentiments of majority community, we want the meat shop owners to close their shops for nine days. We think that there is no harm on this as the meat business during Navratri drops significantly.
Last year, we wrote a letter to MCD and appealed to them to give an order to all meat shops in the city to remain closed during these nine days. However, we did not receive any reply from them, Gupta said.
In April 2020, two Hindu Sena members were arrested for allegedly forcing meat shop owners to shut their businesses in Gurgaon in view of the Navratri festival, police had said.
This year too, such groups have taken to the streets in Gurugram and Faridabad to forcibly shut down meat shops, under the pretext that it is offensive to Hindus.