Publicity stunt or conspiracy: BBC report exposes Sonu Nigam's Azaan claim

On Monday, Sonu Nigam raised a storm via Twitter by tweeting about being disturbed early in the morning by the azaan from the loudspeaker of a mosque near his house. While there was a renewed debate on the use of loudspeakers in religious places, the timing and intention of Sonu Nigam’s tweets was also widely questioned.

On Wednesday, the BBC put out a report telling its readers that there was no audible sounds of the azaan anywhere



near Sonu Nigam’s residence. The journalist who filed the report claimed that she was outside the singer’s apartment in Mumbai’s Versova area in Andheri at 5 am, and she waited for half an hour but could not hear any call for prayer from any loudspeaker during that time. The report also carried interviews with trustees of 3 mosques near Nigam’s residence who allege that the singer’s tweets were merely a publicity stunt.