Hours after the Delhi High Court declined a plea for an interim stay on its proposed action, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi moved in with bulldozers past midnight Tuesday to raze encroachments next to a mosque near Turkman Gate in central Delhi.
Violence erupted about half an hour after bulldozers started razing the illegal structures on public land around the Faiz-e-Elahi Mosque. Some 30-35 people who had gathered there raised slogans and threw stones.
At least five police personnel, including the SHO of Chandni Mahal police station, were injured. Police responded with mild force and teargas to disperse the crowd. Five persons were arrested and later sent to judicial custody.
An FIR, lodged by a police constable, stated: “At about 12.40 am, I, along with the Hon’ble SHO and other staff members, was carrying out police barricading near Badi Masjid, Turkman Gate, when suddenly a crowd of about 30-35 people, raising slogans against the police administration, moved towards the barricades.”
The FIR named five individuals – Shahnawaz, Mohammad Arib, Mohammad Kashif, Mohammad Adnan, and Mohammad Kaif – who it said were in the crowd. Police said they were working to identify others involved in the violence.
“We are cross-checking with CCTV footage,” DCP (Central) Nidhin Valsan said.
In his complaint, the constable said: “I, along with the SHO, made announcements through a loudhailer, informing them that Section 163 BNSS was in force in the area and directing them to disperse immediately. However, they did not comply and continued raising slogans.
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“They broke the barricades and started pelting stones. One person from the crowd snatched the government loudhailer from my hand and damaged it.”
Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, is similar to Section 144 of the old Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and allows an executive magistrate to issue prohibitory orders “in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger”.
Police officers said local people had started to gather near the mosque around 8 pm Tuesday, about an hour after the area began to be barricaded in anticipation of the MCD action.
A fleet of 30 bulldozers rolled in at 11 pm, and the demolition began at 12.12 am, police said. The stones started to fly at 12.40 am, and after about 10 minutes, police responded with teargas.
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Additional forces arrived by 1.30 am, and some people were detained in nearby lanes. Combing operations and foot patrolling were carried out, and the situation was brought under control around 3 am, police said.
“The demolition drive near Faiz-e-Elahi Masjid was carried out by the MCD in compliance with the Delhi High Court’s directions, with comprehensive law-and-order arrangements in place. The situation was brought under control after a brief disturbance, and normalcy was restored with minimal use of force,” Madhur Verma, Joint Commissioner of Police (Central Range), said.
Verma said meetings had been held with members of the Peace Committee before the demolition began. “The operation was supposed to have been executed peacefully. But there were a few mischievous elements who tried to hinder the operation,” he said.
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Delhi Home Minister Ashish Sood said “obstructing or disrupting work being carried out within the framework of law is completely unacceptable”. The Faiz-e-Elahi Mosque remains “completely safe”, Sood said, adding that the razing action had been “limited only to those illegal commercial establishments that fall within the scope of the court’s orders”.
“There is no arbitrariness or mala fide intent on the part of the government in this matter,” he said, and appealed to citizens to not “fall prey to any kind of provocation”.
The bulldozers targeted structures including a baaraat ghar and a dispensary lying outside a 0.195-acre patch of land on which the mosque and dargah – which were not touched – stand.
That the 0.195-acre land is part of Waqf is not in dispute. But the mosque committee has claimed that some of the land outside this area is also part of Waqf.
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This claim was rejected after a joint survey was carried out by officials of the Land and Development Office (L&DO) under the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Delhi Development Authority (DDA), and MCD on October 16 last year.
In its December 22 order, the MCD had said that any structure outside the 0.195-acre area was an encroachment and misuse of public land. In its plea, the mosque committee told the HC that it had no objection to the removal of encroachments, but sought protection for a graveyard adjoining the mosque, which lies beyond the 0.195-acre area.
While the graveyard is no longer functional, the open ground, which, according to the committee, is the part of “Waqf land”, was being used for community activities such as carrying out free medical check-ups, distribution of ration and, occasionally, weddings.
The MCD order said that “by no stretch of imagination, masjid or dargah or graveyard can be used as a marriage venue or clinic”, and this was a “blatant misuse of public land”.
