DNA

Mumbai, Oct 24: Juhu police has registered an offence against the officials of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) temple in Juhu for erecting an arc type hoarding across the road despite being told by traffic police not to do so. The case is being heard in the Andheri metropolitan magistrate’s court, and the verdict is likely to be delivered on Friday October 26.

According to Juhu police, the complaint was filed by traffic police recently, under Sections 33 and 33 (1) (D) (B) of Bombay Police Act, dealing with offences regarding obstruction of traffic and causing inconvenience to the public. If found guilty, the offender could be sent to jail and fined heavily, said a senior officer from Juhu police station.

Traffic police alleged that ISKCON officials had approached them before Janmashtami, seeking permission to erect eight across-the-road advertisement hoardings in the Juhu area. Traffic authorities rejected the plea, saying ISKCON could erect a maximum of two roadside hoardings.

ISKCON, however, paid no heed, and erected three hoardings, one of them across the road, said the police officer. “Traffic police brought this to the notice of ISKCON officials and sent them a notice to remove the hoardings. Again, ISKCON turned a deaf ear,” he said.

When DNA contacted Braj Hari Das, president of Juhu ISKCON, he said their trust had no intention of violating the law. “Everyone was busy during Janmashtami celebrations. However, immediately after we received the traffic police notice, we asked the contractor to remove the hoardings. We even paid fine to traffic police, but they still filed a complaint,” Das said.

He further added that absence of hoarding would not affect the functioning of ISKCON. “We have decided that we would not erect such hoardings in future.”

Traffic police have decided to register similar cases against political parties, whose across-the-road hoardings are obstructing vehicular and pedestrian movement.