LuLu Mall men offering Namaz not Muslims, 80% of workers in mall are Hindus. Yogi rebukes protests outside the mall and the “prayers”.

Late on Saturday evening, DCP (South) and Sushant Golf City Inspector were replaced for their failure to scan the CCTV footage at the beginning of the controversy about LuLu Mall. The mall management had sought time to scan the footage and shared the incriminating footage with the police.

What Sparked Rage and Controversy About Lulu Mall

Men offering Namaz inside LuLu mall sparked reactions from Hindu extremist groups but apparently, from the video evidence, the Lulu Mall miscreants in the mall had no clue about how to offer ‘Namaz’ hence they were not Muslims as they were not facing Mecca, and video is of 22 seconds, whereas it is mandatory to pray for at least 4 to 5 minutes.  Namaz prayers need to face Mecca and specifically to the Ka’abah.  Hence this act was purely to spark controversies and tension between Hindus and Muslims once again, and it is surmised that the men in the mall were non-Muslims by all chance.  Once again, the manner in which they were videod was spurious

Hindu organizations had taken offense at the video and claimed that if Muslims were allowed to pray in the mall, they too should have the right to observe Hindu rituals there.  A group of them had arrived at the mall demanding that they be allowed to read out a part of the Ramayana.  Two men were also recently arrested for reciting the Hanuman Chalisa inside the mall.

The mall, said to be Asia’s largest, was formally opened on Monday while the controversial video was shared on Wednesday. An FIR was lodged by the mall management and a police investigation was initiated. The mall management refuted all the allegations and shared details of its employees with the police and the militant Hindu organizations to disprove them.

CCTV footage now confirms the suspicion, voiced from the beginning of the controversy, that it was deliberate mischief to malign the mall and cause enmity and hatred between communities.

CCTV footage shared by the mall shows eight men gaining entry into the mall together. None of them make any effort to look around the mall or visit any showroom. They neither purchased anything nor were interested in taking selfies in the mall.

Seemingly in a hurry, they start looking for a place to sit down and offer Namaz. They first tried the basement, followed by the ground floor and the first floor—where security guards stopped them. Then they proceeded to the second floor, which was relatively less crowded. Six of the men immediately sat down to offer Namaz while the remaining two appear to have got busy recording videos and taking photographs.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Rajesh Kumar Shrivastava conceded that the footage made it clear that the men had no clue about how Namaz is offered. He was hopeful that the miscreants would be arrested soon.

Activist and social worker Tahira Hasan, who had flagged concerns of a conspiracy right at the beginning, says that the men were clearly ignorant that Namaz is always offered while facing the Kaaba, which is roughly the west direction in north India. While all of them face the West, one of them has his face to a different direction.

After offering the hurried Namaz and recording the video, they exited the mall in a hurry and made no attempt to linger and look around the mall.

While Lucknow has been the center of communal harmony and the Ganga-Jamuni culture, the deliberate mischief to foment communal tension has caused widespread concern.

On Friday another video was shared on social media of a young man offering Namaz on Platform no. 3 at Charbagh Railway Station. This was immediately followed by organizations like Hindu Mahasabha to demand the removal of the 900-years-old Mazaar of Khamman Peer nestling between the railway tracks. Ironically, more Hindus offer prayers at the Mazaar than Muslims.

Social activist Deepak Kabir points out that devout Muslims are hardly likely to devote more attention to making videos than to offering prayers.

The mall was inaugurated by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on July 10.

LuLu Mall Clarify 80 Percent of Employees in the Mall are Hindus, Men also  Arrested for Reciting the Hanuman Chalisa

The Hindu extremists had alleged that 80% of the men employed at the mall were Muslims but the women were all Hindus. This was, they alleged part of Love Jihad. The LuLu Mall Lucknow administration rubbished charges of a Muslim bias, saying it is a completely professional establishment that conducts business without any discrimination.

“Our employees are hired on the basis of skills and merit, and not based on caste, class, or religion,” it said.  It’s saddening that some selfish elements are trying to target our establishment, it said, further elucidating that their employees comprise 80 percent Hindus, and the rest are Muslims, Christians, and from various other communities.

The statement said the mall administration filed an FIR and took appropriate action against those who “maliciously” tried to organize prayers in the public area.

Two people were recently arrested after they entered the Lulu Mall on Saturday and started reciting the Hanuman Chalisa, police said. At least 15 others were detained for creating a ruckus while trying to enter the shopping mall.

This comes after police lodged an FIR under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 295A (deliberate act intended to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against a group of unidentified people who allegedly offered namaz at the mall recently.

The case was registered on a complaint from the representatives of the mall, who claimed that those seen in the video were not their staff members.

CM Yogi pulls up Lucknow administration, and police over LuLu mall protests