Court orders FIR against DJ for threatening anti-noise pollution activist

According to Abdulali’s complaint to the magistrate, the matter escalated on September 10, 2022, when she was recording decibel levels during the Ganesh visarjan at Chowpatty

MUMBAI: The DB Marg police station, on the order of the metropolitan magistrate, on Thursday filed an FIR against one Varun Ganjawalla for trolling and threatening anti-noise pollution activist Sumaira Abdulali.

Abdulali told HT that what transpired was very distressing for her. “Court orders direct impartial implementation of noise rules for all communities,” she said. “It is shocking that to violate these rules, people across communities threaten me personally and try to create communal disharmony. Nevertheless I shall continue doing my work.” (HT PHOTO)

Ganjawalla, who is a part-time disc jockey (DJ) and a member of the Professional Audio and Lighting Association (PALA), was upset about Abdulali’s sustained activism in the field of noise pollution during festivals, which had led to the Mumbai police in 2017 banning DJ-led street processions during religious festivals. While Abdulali supported the ban in court, PALA filed a writ petition against the police order in August 2017, which is still pending.

According to Abdulali’s complaint to the magistrate, the matter escalated on September 10, 2022, when she was recording decibel levels during the Ganesh visarjan at Chowpatty. Ganjawalla, who was unknown to her, suddenly accosted her, demanding that she speak with him. Despite Abdulali refusing, he allegedly started recording her on his phone and chided her for not responding to his comments on Facebook and blocking him. Finally, she approached police personnel at the site who came to her rescue. All these incidents form part of Abdulali’s complaint and the FIR.

Abdulali, who had blocked Ganjawalla in September 2020 because of a couple of objectionable comments, went back and unblocked him to check what he was talking about. The DJ had posted pictures of her with her decibel meter, which he had taken at various sites, and urged his Facebook friends to “share maximum so that action can be taken on this lady who comes to target Hindu festivals—her name is Sumaira Abdulali, Awaaz Foundation”.

Ganjawalla kept this up, saying Abdulali was “now scared and in hiding” but people needed to “find this lady”. He also claimed that she was using a decibel meter that was not recognised by the police, and was not trained to measure decibel levels correctly. The trolls cheered him on and continued the abuse along communal and threatening lines.

When Abdulali approached the DB Marg police and later the DCP, Zone 2 in September 2022, only a non-cognisable (NC) offence was registered, and no action was taken. She then filed an application in the metropolitan magistrate’s court at Girgaon on March 4, seeking directions to the DB Marg police station to register an FIR. In her application, she pointed out that all the offences against Ganjawalla were prima facie cognisable in nature and an FIR was mandatorily required to be registered. On June 23, the magistrate passed an order, directing the police to investigate the matter and submit a report within a month. On Thursday, an FIR was finally filed against Ganjawalla.

Abdulali told HT that what transpired was very distressing for her. “Court orders direct impartial implementation of noise rules for all communities,” she said. “It is shocking that to violate these rules, people across communities threaten me personally and try to create communal disharmony. Nevertheless I shall continue doing my work.”

While trolls have often labelled Abdulali as “anti-Hindu” on the basis of her religion, the activist has been taking decibel readings of all festivals and processions, including Eid-e-Milad, Bakri Eid and Urus. She has filed petitions against early-morning azaans from mosques as well as the Mahim dargah in 2017, for which she was gheraoed and verbally assaulted while taking readings at the dargah the following year. The information about the decibel levels of all these forms part of the record in the Bombay high court.