New Delhi: On any other day, Chandni Mahal in Old Delhi would double up as a market, overflowing with buyers, sellers and local residents going about their business. But Wednesday was different. Police barricades lined the narrow lanes, with an anti-riot vehicle parked in the middle of the road and Delhi Police personnel patrolling the streets.
The measures were put in place hours after stones were pelted at Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) officials who, accompanied by police personnel, reached the area surrounding Faiz-e-Ilahi mosque around midnight to enforce an order passed by Delhi HC declaring a portion of the mosque complex illegal on account of it being on government land.
A member of the local Aman (peace) Committee suggested that those who pelted stones at MCD officials and police personnel were “outsiders”. But the FIR registered over the incident, a copy of which ThePrint has seen, paints a different picture. In the FIR, a police constable has claimed to have identified five local residents as being among the 35-40 people who gathered near the police barricade and raised slogans against the police.
Delhi police have so far arrested five local residents in connection with the violence.
The MCD, in complying with the high court directive from November, had issued an order on 22 December declaring a portion of the mosque complex encroachment on government land. This portion houses a dispensary, a musafirkhana (guest house), and a wedding hall.
The mosque management committee, led by general secretary Hafiz Matloob Karim, challenged the MCD order in the high court, which sent notices Tuesday to MCD and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).
Hours after the demolition drive, Joint Commissioner of Police (central range) Madhur Verma said the administration held several coordination meetings with members of the Aman Committee and other stakeholders to maintain peace and prevent any untoward incidents.
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‘No resident would invite wrath of administration’
Mohammed Shehzad (50), a member of the Aman Committee, confirmed that nearly 150 people met MCD officials and police personnel, including DCP (central range) Nidhin Valsan, ahead of the demolition drive. “The police and administration had explained to us in detail that the demolition will be done only against the portion built after illegal encroachment, and that the committee which included nearly 200 people had given assurances that they will cooperate in the legal action,” Shehzad told ThePrint Wednesday afternoon.
“It must have been outsiders who did this (stone pelting). No resident would do this and invite the wrath of the administration and a bad image to the locality,” he added, as MCD workers loaded rubble from the demolished structure into dump trucks.
Police personnel on duty during the demolition drive have a different version.
In his complaint to Chandni Mahal police station, which formed the basis of the FIR, Delhi Police Constable Sandeep claimed to have identified at least five local residents as being part of the group that gathered there.
“At 12:40 am, I was working with the SHO and other staff at the police barricades at Turkman Gate of the big mosque when a crowd of about 30-35 people, some of whom I know, approached the barricades and raised slogans against the police administration,” reads the complaint.
Seeing a charged-up group approach police personnel standing behind the barricades, Sandeep said he announced that the area was under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which bars assembly of five or more without prior authorisation.
“However, they refused to listen and, raising slogans, began breaking through the barricades and pelting stones. One of them snatched the official loudspeaker from my hand and broke it. HC [Head Constable] Jal Singh, Ct [Constable] Vikram, Ct Ravinder, and the SHO [Station House Officer] sustained injuries in the stone-pelting,” he alleged.
The complaint went on to add that the crowd was dispersed with help from additional police personnel, but Head Constable Jal Singh, Constable Vikram and the SHO sustained injuries.
Constable Vikram, who was under treatment earlier at Lok Nayak Hospital, told ThePrint that the crowd was charged-up and raising slogans against the police administration, while some were instigating them to protest. “There were three lanes ending at the road outside the mosque, but the stone pelting happened only from one end, and that required the forces present there to fire tear gas to disperse the crowd,” he said.
Senior Delhi police officers said stone pelting began immediately after the MCD team and police personnel arrived at the site. “The crowd was dispersed in half an hour, and the demolition began around 1:30 am,” a senior Delhi police officer said, requesting anonymity.
Mohammed Shahid, who runs a tailoring shop in Chandni Chowk, woke up to heightened police presence blocking his commute from his residence to his business. “What can I say about all this? I was asleep when I heard the sound of chaos and saw only people being chased away by [police] forces with sticks in their hands,” he told ThePrint.
Hearings preceding demolition
The Faiz-e-Ilahi mosque at Turkman Gate, near Ramlila Maidan, has been in the news since footage from CCTVs showed the Red Fort suicide bomber, Dr Umar un Nabi, offered prayers there hours before his car exploded on 10 November last year, killing at least 15 people.
But even before the explosion outside Red Fort and the footage of Nabi leaving the mosque emerged, activist Preet Sirohi had moved the Delhi HC seeking directions for removal of encroachment at the mosque complex. Sirohi, through his lawyer Umesh Sharma, submitted to the high court that MCD, DDA, and Land and Development Office (Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation) conducted a joint survey of the site.
The high court observed that in the joint survey report (JSR), authorities identified encroachment of approximately 2,512 square feet on a road belonging to the Public Works Department (PWD).
Quoting the JSR, the high court also said authorities documented that in another part of the mosque complex, 36,428 sq ft of MCD land was encroached upon, where a barat ghar (wedding hall) and other commercial activities, including parking and a private diagnostic centre, were set up illegally.
In its order on 12 November 2025, the high court asked both PWD and MCD to act against the encroachment but also give the mosque management committee a hearing.
Complying with the order, MCD organised two hearings with representatives of the mosque management committee. These meetings were also attended by the DDA Director and officials from the Land and Development Office, on 24 November and 16 December.
In the order issued on 22 December, MCD documented that the mosque predated Independence, is adjoined by a graveyard, and there was no demarcation between the two. It further documented that Karim, general secretary of the mosque management committee, denied the existence of any wedding hall at the site.
He said a “vacant portion of the premises is being used for occasional marriage functions and a charitable clinic is being run for the needy people at marginal charges”.
Karim also submitted during the hearings that the mosque complex was a ‘waqf by user’ property, for which no ownership or title deed is required.
A representative of Delhi Waqf Board submitted before MCD that the area in question may be taken on record as 0.195 acre, as per the agreement signed in February 1940 between the Governor-General in Council and secretary, managing committee, Jama Masjid.
“No documentary evidence has been placed on record to establish ownership or lawful possession of the land in question in favour of either the Managing Committee, Masjid Syed Faiz Illahi or the Delhi Waqf Board,” read the MCD order signed by a deputy commissioner-rank officer.
It added: “Further, by no stretch of imagination, masjid or dargah or graveyard can be used as marriage venue or clinic. This is a blatant misuse of public land. In view of above, any structure beyond 0.195 acre of land is an encroachment and deserves to be removed.”
On Tuesday, the high court while hearing the plea by the masjid management committee seeking a stay on the MCD order noted that Karim’s counsel submitted that he had no “grievance” over removal of encroachments as both the wedding hall as well as the diagnostic centre at the subject land have ceased to operate.
“The grievance of the petitioner is in respect of graveyard that is operating on the subject land. In this regard, he places reliance on the jamabandi (at pages 65-66 of the paper book) filed along with the writ petition,” Justice Amit Bansal observed in the order.
The judge also noted the submission by the MCD’s counsel that 0.195 acre of land was given on lease by the Land and Development Office in February 1940, and that they are not proposing to take any action on this 0.195 acre of land containing both the mosque complex and the graveyard. “The secretary of the mosque committee also did not argue that the graveyard extended beyond the 0.195 acres of land,” the judge noted.
The high court, while issuing a notice to MCD and other authorities, asked them to file a counter-affidavit within four weeks. It added, “needless to state, any actions taken by the respondent will be subject to final outcome of the writ petition.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)