CR Park fish sellers ‘threatened’ against selling meat near temple

In Chittaranjan Park, Delhi, fish sellers faced threats from a group against selling meat near a temple, prompting police inquiry into the incident.

New Delhi

Senior police officers said the video is “dated” and they are verifying when the incident took place. (Representative photo)

Fish sellers and shopkeepers operating around the Chittaranjan Park market in south Delhi were allegedly threatened by a group of unidentified people against selling meat near the temple in the area, according to a video that surfaced on social media. Senior police officers, however, said the video is “dated” and they are verifying when the incident took place.

In the video, men clad in saffron kurtas allegedly threatened fish sellers for selling meat. The group posted the video from Instagram account “jagobharat_official”, which has 30,000 followers. They also posted videos of their members defacing sign boards of Akbar Road, among others, in the Capital.

In one of the videos posted by the group, a member is heard telling a shopkeeper: “Are you okay with selling meat near a temple? We are Sanatani…Devotees will be affected. You should maybe move your shops away…You can’t sell meat here.”

In another video, another member is seen showing a Hanuman temple (near the fish market) and questioning fish sellers. The member is heard saying: “Why are you selling meat here?”, to which the fish seller replies, “It’s a DDA regulated market”.

The group then tells the fish sellers that they are “in talks” with the DDA to remove the shops.

DDA did not respond to requests for comment. HT could not independently verify the videos.

A fish seller told HT that a group of men, posing as journalists, approached them last month to threaten them. He said, “I was at my shop when a man came to me and started asking me questions about selling meat. The temple is old and its been here for years. We don’t know what the problem is. He said he will remove all our shops. What can we do?”

Another fish seller said the group threatened to “take down” the entire fish market in CR Park 1. “We don’t know what to do. This has never happened before. The men, who are not even residents, came to us and started shouting at us. We have never hurt anyone. Why are we being targeted?” he said.

“The local police have not received any complaint in this matter. However, the matter is under inquiry,” said deputy commissioner of police (south) Ankit Chauhan.

The Delhi government appealed to police to take action against those responsible.