For two days in late May, several television channels ran breathless coverage of events outside Poonam Cluster 1, a cooperative housing society in the Mira Road suburb of Thane district. 

Hindutva activists gathered at the society gates. Some brought a pig. TV anchors spoke about “illegal qurbani”, and politicians weighed in. Social media amplified the images. The allegation was simple. That a gated residential complex had become the site of illegal animal sacrifice, and Hindutva groups had rightfully intervened.

There was, however, a problem with this account. 

Records reviewed by Newslaundry and confirmed by the managing committee and a large number of residents suggest that the 640-family cooperative housing society itself had for many years permitted residents to temporarily house goats before Eid-ul-Adha under a regulated arrangement. The same records repeatedly prohibited animal sacrifice inside the society.

What actually happened appears to be a story about objections by a group of five residents, a complaint copied to two Hindutva organisations, and a media cycle that seemingly moved faster than the facts.

Before latest complaint, objections to Taravih prayers

At the centre of the controversy was a temporary bamboo enclosure built to house goats in the days before Eid-ul-Adha, observed on May 28 this year.

This was not a new development. Society records show that similar arrangements had been formally approved before by the managing committee, which included both Muslim and non-Muslim members. 

The paper trail reviewed by Newslaundry – AGM minutes from 2019, a letter by the secretary in 2023, festival guidelines from October 2023, committee communication from May 2026, and the committee’s letters to police and the civic agency – suggests this: that the goats were permitted temporarily in a designated area, animal sacrifice was prohibited, cleanliness conditions attached, and the arrangement formally conveyed to civic authorities.

The minutes of the society’s Annual General Meeting of September 2019 underline this pattern. They note that the society’s four celebrated festivals are popular festivals of Maharashtra that transcend religious boundaries, and that no other religious activities should be conducted in open areas. But they explicitly permit members to keep goats during Bakri Eid in a designated covered area, at the members’ own expense, to maintain cleanliness of common spaces.

A 2023 letter from society secretary Asad Shaikh had also granted permission for a temporary shed and stated clearly that “no animal sacrifice would be allowed in the shed”.

This year, the approval was accompanied by the same guidelines. 

On May 13, the managing committee issued a communication approving the temporary shed with detailed conditions: entry and exit restricted to Gate No. 3, no slaughter inside flats or anywhere on the premises,........

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