National Desk, 29 June: The arrival of two goats at a private housing complex in Mumbai resulted in chanting slogans of “Jai Shri Ram” and “Hanuman chalisa” by other residents of the flat before police intervention was able to calm things down.
The police intervened to settle the dispute and assured members of the society that animal sacrifice wouldn’t be allowed inside the premises per rules. The police have registered a case against 11 people.
Amid the Bakrid festival which is typically marked by the sacrifice of cattle, a resident Mohsin Sheikh brought the animals into his home on Mira Road in the Thane area near Mumbai.
According to the sheikh, the residential society is home to 200–250 Muslim families. He argued that the individual who built the residential community gave them a specific area to keep goats every year. This year, though, the builder allegedly declined and asked the families to meet with the residential society instead. Further, he said that the society’s denial of their request was the reason he had to bring the goats home. Sheikh claimed that he had no intentions of performing animal sacrifices on the grounds of the community.
“If bringing the goats inside the housing colony was against the law, then they should have filed a police complaint against us. We were assaulted, molested and mentally harassed by the mob that gathered to protest against us,” Mohsin Khan and his wife Yasmin Khan alleged.
“Our society had passed a rule that no livestock would be allowed into the society, but they (some residents) violated it and brought two goats inside. We are opposing it and will not allow it,” another resident of the society said.
Sheikh later moved the goats out of the residential society.