Citing ‘illegality,’ the Uttar Pradesh government led by CM Yogi Adityanath in Pragyaraj demolished the house of a Muslim activist and detained his father in Pragyaraj on Sunday afternoon over alleged involvement in the violence that broke out in the area on Friday amid the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) remarks row.
Before the demolition drive was carried out, the police on Saturday arrested Mohammed Javed, an activist for allegedly conspiring to carry out violent protests in Allahabad (now Prayagraj) against the ‘disparaging remarks’ made by two Bharatiya Janata Party spokespersons on the last Islamic Prophet.
The Kanpur Development Authority also demolished a four-story high-rise building on Saturday owned by a close aide of the main accused in the ‘violence’ that broke out in the city last week.
On June 3, at least 40 persons were injured in Kanpur after ‘violence’ raged against the derogatory comments on the Prophet Muhammed PBUH. Now-suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma had made derogatory comments during a TV debate on May 26, while Naveen Jindal, who was media head of the BJP’s Delhi unit, had posted a tweet on June 1 about the Prophet. He deleted the tweet later. Jindal was expelled from the party on June 5.
Afreen Fatima, a former JNU student appeared in a video and said that the police came to her house without show cause and took her father into custody, Maktoob Media reported. She also said that the police detained her mother and sister and that she does not know their whereabouts. “My younger sister is just 19 years old and my mother is a diabetic patient,” she added.
“On Sunday, Mohammed’s family was asked to vacate the house by 11 am and a show-cause notice was given to Mohammed, on May 10, asking him to appear for a hearing before it on May 24 but he did not comply, the Prayagraj Development Authority said.
However, the family denies serving a notice before Saturday and said that the mother-daughter duo was detained late on Saturday and released on Sunday morning.
Prayagraj Senior Superintendent of Police Ajay Kumar told reporters that illegal weapons and objectionable posters were recovered from Mohammed’s house during the demolition.
Kamal Krishna Roy, a lawyer of the Mohammed family has filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court challenging the demolition.
On Saturday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath said that “strict action” would be taken against “anti-social elements” who attempt to disturb peace. “Not even one innocent person will be disturbed and not even one culprit will be spared,” he said.
State BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh supported the calls for demolition of the homes of persons accused of violence. “Those whose homes are in the shadow of bulldozers do not throw stones at others,” he said on Twitter.
There are no provisions under Indian law to demolish the home of anyone accused of a crime, however, this pattern has been regularly observed across Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states, Scroll reported.
Earlier, the Madhya Pradesh government demolished the houses and shops of Muslims for allegedly attacking a Ram Navami (Hindu festival) procession.
Before that seven homes of the accused persons were demolished in Assam for setting a police station on fire after an alleged custodial death.
The derogatory remarks against the last Islamic prophet were denounced by Muslim countries across the world.