The police in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad have ordered Muslim wedding band operators not to name their bands after Hindu deities after a complaint was filed on the chief minister’s portal, the Hindustan Times reported on Thursday.

A complaint was registered by a lawyer on July 9, claiming that about 15 to 20 Muslim band operators in the district were running their businesses using the names of Hindu deities, the newspaper quoted unidentified police officers as saying.

The complainant claimed that the practice hurt religious sentiments.

Superintendent of Police (City) Kumar Ranvijay Singh told Amar Ujala that several band operators in the district were summoned on Tuesday and told to remove such names. “All of them have said that they will remove the names,” he was quoted as saying.

The complainant told the Hindustan Times that the wedding band industry in Moradabad was largely dominated by Muslims. “Yet many of these establishments operate under Hindu names, including those of gods and goddesses,” he said.

“This is an attempt to distort identity,” he alleged. “The chief minister [Adityanath] himself has called for action against such practices.”

The action taken by the police based on his complaint was not discrimination, but “legal action”, he told the newspaper.

This came a month after the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments directed eateries along the Kanwar Yatra pilgrimage route to display quick response codes with their owners’ identities.

The matter was challenged in the Supreme Court, where a counsel for the Uttarakhand government reportedly claimed that the real problem was dhabas named “Shiva Dhaba” or “Parvati Dhaba” being run by Muslims.

On July 22, the court refused to examine the legality of the directives issued by the two state governments.

Similar orders were issued by Uttar Pradesh in 2024. The police in the state’s Muzaffarnagar had claimed at the time that the decision was taken to “avoid confusion” among devotees who will travel on the route.

The Supreme Court had passed an interim order in July 2024 that prohibited forcing vendors to disclose their identities.

📰 Crime Today News is proudly sponsored by DRYFRUIT & CO – A Brand by eFabby Global LLC

Design & Developed by Yes Mom Hosting