After a Public Interest Litigation(PIL) in the Allahabad High Court filed by the social activist and former Foreign Correspondent Saket Gokhale seeking postponement of the Bhumi Pujan of the Ram Mandir on August 5 rejected, many BJP and RSS workers staged a protest outside Saket Gokhale’s apartment on Friday.
Saket Gokhale, a social activist living in Kashimira area of Mira Road, had filed a PIL in the Allahabad High Court seeking postponement of the Bhumi Pujan program at the Ram temple because of Coronavirus pandemic. He said in the petition that according to the guidelines provided by the central government under Unlock 1.0 and 2.0, the religious gathering is banned. However, the petition was rejected by the Honourable High Court observing that the entire petition was filed on the basis of assumptions, on Friday.
Later, BJP and RSS workers in Mira Bhayandar staged a protest outside Gokhale’s apartment.
FIR Registered
Gokhale alleges that his mother was threatened by the RSS and BJP workers. “RSS mobs crowded outside my house and shouted slogans like Jai Shri Ram. However, a case has been registered against them at Kashimira Police Station. Police have asked to provide all the numbers from where he received the threatening calls. Nevertheless, Saket Gokhale informed this through social media.
“A security has been provided on the Home Minister’s instruction,” said Gokhale.
Saket also posted screenshots of the netizens, who abused him on the Social Media. Gokhale said that he had received 138 calls within 10 minutes from BJP/RSS workers. Significantly, he has all the numbers and will be providing those numbers to police.
When asked how his number gets leaked, he said “Thanks to Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Sneakily, they published my RTI application without clouding my contact details. And, this was followed intensively by the ‘Godi Media’.
Gokhale had taken to Twitter to lodge a complaint at the Kashimira Police Station. Reacting to this, Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant had appealed to Home Minister Anil Deshmukh to provide necessary security to Gokhale.
Anil Deshmukh then tweeted that he was taking immediate action.
Protester’s reaction
However, protesters denied that they had threatened to Gokhale’s mother. “We had protested in a democratic way. As he protested the event by filing PIL, in the same way, we chanted slogan ‘Jai Shri Ram’ outside his building. However, residents told us that he was alone with his pet inside the apartment.”
