On Saturday, January 13, the Palanpur police in Gujarat arrested a truck driver identified as Bachal Khan for flouting traffic rules. Khan was apprehended for stopping his truck at a busy crossroad on a highway on Friday, January 12 and offering namaz on the roadside.
The action against the truck driver was taken after a video of him went viral on social media, the police confirmed on Sunday.
“The video was shot by a passerby and went viral on social media, prompting police action,” the official said.
A case was registered against Bachal Khan under sections 283 (danger in public way), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharging duties) and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
This video is from Palanpur’s Aroma Circle, which suddenly went viral on social media on Friday. In the viral video, it can be seen that a white colour trailer truck is parked at a busy intersection. Sitting in front of this truck is a person offering namaz while seated on a mat. He is dressed in a sky-coloured kurta, lungi, and skull cap. As evident in the video, Bachal Khan parked his truck and prayed in the middle of the road, disrupting the traffic at a busy highway intersection.
Someone shot a video which went viral on social media, prompting police action.
Notably, before this, videos of people praying in several public places, such as gardens, large shopping centres, railway stations, airports, and schools, have come to the fore. These kinds of events have been increasing over time and Gujarat is not an exemption. Videos of Namaz being offered at the garden of Uparkot Fort in Junagadh as well as in MS University of Vadodara have surfaced earlier.