The Shiv Sena’s recent Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park, which attracted a lot of attention due to the recording of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray’s emotional speech, has run into legal trouble.
The police has filed a complaint of decibel-level violations against the organisers at Shivaji Park. The area has been declared a silence zone by the BMC.
“The background noise itself reached around 65 decibels, when the permissible limit is 45 decibels. Once loudspeakers were switched on and when speeches began, the sound levels went as high as 105 decibels,” said
Dhananjay Kulkarni, DCP, Zone 5.
The readings were taken during different points of the rally held on October 24, after which the Shivaji Park police registered a complaint under various sections of the Environment Protection Act. “A man named Divakar Borkar had approached the Shivaji Park police on behalf of the Shiv Sena for permission to hold the rally. We have named him in the FIR and had sent him a notice to appear at the police station within 24 hours.
However, he has not yet responded. We will soon decide on further course of action,” Mr Kulkarni added.
The rally was seen as significant because it was only the second time in four-and-a-half decades that Mr Thackeray was unable to attend the rally himself.
In his recorded speech, he appealed to Shiv Sainiks to support Uddhav and Aditya the way they had supported him.
Earlier this year, the Shivaji Park police had registered a similar case in connection with the Yuva Sena’s much publicised music programme, where sound levels had crossed 100 decibels more than once.