At a shop selling men’s shoes in Mumbai’s popular shopping complex, Heera Panna, a few concerned Parsis spotted that shoes were being sold with motifs of our angel Asho Farohar embedded on them as fashion. The matter was brought to light to Khorshed Meherji who was informed regarding the sale of such shoes, which not only mocked the very symbol of Zoroastrian faith but also hurt and outraged our religious sentiments. “I got a call from a friend, who told me that certain kind of male shoes were being sold in Heera Panna, which had our Asho Farohar on it. I felt furious and to find out the authenticity of the call, I decided to check it out myself”, explained Khorshed to PT’s Delaveen.
Acting upon the call, Khorshed visited Heera Panna’s Shop no. 11 on the pretext of being a customer on 24th July, 2016. “While glancing through the stores, I chanced upon ‘Shop No. 11’ and saw the shoes with the ‘Asho Farohar’ on it in a showcase. I quietly took a picture of that pair, on the pretext of wanting to buy one for my aged father. I also took their business card”, stated Khorshed.
The very next day, Khorshed began telephoning community members and whatsapping them the picture of the shoes, firstly to confirm if the symbol was actually an ‘Asho Farohar’ and not just a close replica. On receiving confirmation, Khorshed got in touch with President of BJP’s Minority Cell (Parsi Cell), Neville Broacha and related the incident to him. “When Khorshed told me about the happenings, I immediately connected with the Corporator of ‘D Ward’, Sarita Patil, who readily offered her support”, said Neville.
On 27th July, Khorshed, along with Neville Broacha, Corporator Sarita and her husband Ajay Patil and a few community members, stomped in to shop no. 11. “We demanded that the pairs of shoes be shown and started questioning the Shopkeeper”, said Khorshed. In the midst of the commotion and chaos, the police was summoned to intervene. On reaching the spot at around 3:30pm, the Tardeo police arrested the shopkeeper and ceased three pairs of ‘Asho Farohar’ male shoes.
The shopkeeper, identified as 36-year-old Deepak Shrikishan Bansal is a resident of Bhayandar and only runs and manages the shop. Bansal was arrested at 4:30pm on Wednesday and has been booked under Section 295(A) of the Indian Penal Code (Deliberate and Malicious Acts, intended to outrage religious feelings), a non-bailable offense.
The identification of the owner of shop no. 11 at Heera Panna and the manufacturers are yet to be ascertained. Deepak was produced at the Girgaon Court on Thursday.
Standing firmly in support of Khorshed’s endeavour throughout at the Tardeo Police station, community member Rumy Zarir said, “No one has the right to hurt anyone’s religious sentiments. What has happened is really bad. I urge all my dear community members to come out and fight, as this time we were only a few Parsis at the Tardeo Police Station. We should not allow anyone to take our religion for granted”.
Supporting the interest of the Community, Corporator Sarita Patil expressed to Parsi Times “It’s horrible that a religious symbol which is held in great respect to the Parsi community was sold on shoes. The sentiments of the members of the Parsi community have been hurt. We want to know the details of the manufacturer and hope to stop this completely as he may have sent his product to many other outlets as well. For now, we have sent our social workers to Manish Market, Crawford Market and various other malls to see if the stock is being sold there as well”.
Speaking to PT’s Delaveen, Police Sub-Inspector of Tardeo police station, Balwant Bharade said, “We have arrested Bansal but he is only appointed to run the shop. We have also ceased the pairs of shoes with the Parsi symbol which were put on display. Our investigations to identify the owner of the shop as well as the manufacturers are on.”
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