Mumbai: A Mumbai-based actor took to social media to claim that he was not allowed to celebrate Diwali in the Muslim-dominated area he lives, but police Tuesday said the matter had no ‘Hindu-Muslim’ angle to it.
Vishwa Bhanu, who hail from Patna and works in the Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani-owned Excel Entertainment, took to Facebook and claimed that his neighbours asked him and his wife to remove the diyas and a rangoli by their gate.
“I am living in a Muslim society in Mumbai Malad Malwani and like last year this year too people of the society start arguing with my wife on lighting up her house today. They were not allowing my wife to lighting up and making a rangoli on the gate outside the house. They destroyed the lights and the crowd forced me to remove the lights,” he posted Saturday.
The actor, who has worked in films like Special 26 starring Akshay Kumar, Mardaani and Raghu Romeo, also took to twitter to inform PM Narendra Modi of the issue.
He also approached the Malavani police station in suburban Malad and lodged a complaint. Jagdev Kalapad, senior inspector at the police station, said this was not a “Hindu-
Muslim” matter and denied there was any communal angle to it. “It was a case of a child in the locality getting a shock from some Diwali decoration lights put up by the Bhanus. The neighbours asked Bhanus family to either put up the lights higher or apply a tape on the exposed part, following which an argument ensued between them,” the official said.
The police apparently asked Bhanu’s Muslim neighbours to get a candle for his family as a sign of rapprochement. The Bhanus told them they didn’t want a candle but added that that the matter has been resolved amicably, police said.
