The Allahabad High Court on Sunday granted 15 days to 23 residents of Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich district to respond to demolition notices that they received from the Public Works Department in the wake of their alleged involvement in the communal violence in the area on October 13, Live Law reported.
The department served notices to the 23 residents in Maharajganj village after inspecting their homes and establishments on Friday. They were asked them to vacate their properties in three days as per provisions of the Road Control Act, 1964. Twenty of those to whom notices were served were Muslims.
One of the shops that received a notice belonged to 62-year-old jeweller Abdul Hameed, who was allegedly involved in the killing of a 22-year-old Hindu man named Ram Gopal Mishra on October 13. Hameed’s three sons have also been accused in the case.
The court was on Sunday hearing a public interest litigation by the non-governmental organisation Association For Protection of Civil Rights challenging the proposed action.
The High Court said that it had no reason to believe that the Uttar Pradesh government would not follow an earlier order of the Supreme Court on demolitions in letter and spirit, The Hindu reported.
The bench was referring to a September 17 order of the top court that stayed demolitions without its permission.
The High Court, however, questioned why the association filed the petitions on behalf of the persons who received the notices. It verbally observed that notices issued to a limited number of persons could not be seen as a matter of general importance, unless those who got the eviction notices could not move court on their own.
The government has claimed that the alleged encroachments needed to be removed to widen roads in the Maharajganj village. The court on Sunday asked the state government to specify the number of maps sanctioned for construction along the road in the matter, according to Live Law.
The matter was listed for further hearing on Wednesday.
There are no provisions in Indian law that allow for the destruction of property as a punitive action against someone accused of a crime. The practice has, however, become common in states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
What happened on October 13?
The altercation that led to Mishra’s killing was reportedly triggered after some Muslims objected to allegedly provocative songs being played during a Durga Puja procession.
A video widely shared on social media purportedly showed Mishra removing a green flag from a building and replacing it with a saffron flag during the procession. The violence erupted after miscreants threw stones and fired gunshots.
At least 26 persons, including the primary suspect identified as Salman, have been arrested in connection with Mishra’s death.
On October 14, hundreds gathered in protest during Mishra’s last rites. Several properties were torched and the police used lathis and tear gas to disperse the crowd. Internet services were suspended in the district and restored on Thursday.
The same day, Hameed’s daughter Rukhsar claimed that the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force had detained her father, her two brothers, her husband and her brother-in-law.
Later that same day, the police shot and injured two men accused of involvement in Mishra’s killing, one of whom was Hameed’s son Sarfaraz.
By Friday, the police had arrested 87 individuals in Bahraich related to the ensuing riots, PTI reported.
Circle Officer Rupendra Gaur, Tehsildar Ravikant Dwivedi and District Information Officer Ghulam Waris Siddiqui were removed from their positions after the violence.
A station house officer and a police officer were suspended.
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