The police removed loudspeakers from a mosque in Sambhal district. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

The police removed loudspeakers from a mosque in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district on Sunday (March 9, 2025) for alleged violations of noise control guidelines.

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The first information report of the police said the loudspeakers installed at the Punjabian masjid in Chandausi were used at volumes that breached the noise pollution regulations set by the Allahabad High Court. The policemen on patrol removed the loudspeakers from the mosque, it added.

“The incident was reported by beat constable Jitender Kumar on Saturday around 7 p.m.,” read the FIR, registered under sections 223 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant, 270 (Public nuisance) and 292 (punishment for public nuisance) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The FIR, which also included provisions of noise pollution laws, further named Shakeel Shamsi, the mosque’s caretaker.

In 2022, the Uttar Pradesh government issued guidelines to restrict the use of loudspeakers at places of worship and since then, the devices have been removed from religious sites on many occasions, and cases had been registered.

On November 24, 2024, five persons died and several others, including police personnel, were injured when violence erupted over a court-ordered survey of the city’s Shahi Jama Masjid, following a petition claiming that a temple once stood at the site.

After the violence, the administration held various anti-encroachment drives in the district to remove “illegally built structures”.