On Wednesday, a crowd of around 200 people led by one Javed Ali assembled in front of the Kotwali police station, demanding that an FIR be registered against one Baba Giri Maharaj for alleged objectionable comments against the Prophet Muhammad in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district.
Told that an FIR cannot be registered in Kotwali since the incident occurred in Maharashtra, where a case had already been registered, the crowd became aggressive. They allegedly hurled abuses at town inspector Arvind Kujur and then attacked him, along with several other policemen, injuring some.
In an FIR, registered against 47 identified and over 150 unidentified people, the police said the group was led by Javed Ali and Shehzad Ali and armed with sticks, rods, stones and swords.
The complainant, upper constable Rahul Tiwari, said he had informed the control room and the town inspector when the crowd gathered, and they immediately reached the spot.
The FIR mentioned the group’s demand for an FIR in the Maharashtra case. It further accused the crowd of trying to enter the police station, attempting to grab tear gas shells, and damaging a number of parked vehicles.
Haji Shehzad Ali has disputed the claim. The town inspector, who was not present at the spot when they arrived, reached after two hours, he said.
“Discussions were underway and the police were of the opinion that they will investigate the matter before registering an FIR, while the Muslim side demanded that a case be registered for hurting religious sentiments,” he told ThePrint Thursday.
“This created some tension between the elderly members of the community and the police. Some young men in the community, looking at the situation, began pelting stones which led to a lathi charge and the crowd subsequently dispersed,” he said.
On Thursday, Superintendent of Police Aman Sharma said, “We have detained about 20 people and more are being identified based on video evidence and more people will be detained and arrested.” He added that the situation was brought under control in five minutes of lathi charge.
Conflicting claims on a notice
On Thursday morning, a convoy of the local Nagar Nigam, accompanied by the police, reached Shehzad Ali’s residence and began the demolition of his two-storey bungalow.
The collector, however, denied there being any connection between the demolition and the attack on the policemen. He said it was a routine operation.
“The house belonged to the one accused. Four other family members who have been booked also lived there. But this action is being taken as the house has been constructed without proper permissions from the Nagar Nigam and a notice was issued about 15 days ago,” said collector Parth Jaiswal.
“Besides it’s within 200 meters of a water body and therefore it is being demolished, there is no connection with the incident. It is a routine drive to remove encroachment and we have removed five such encroachments across the district,” he added.
Jaiswal further explained that there are other houses being identified for demolition. “Some were given a week back, some 15 days ago, and based on that we are demolishing houses.”
He also said, “There were two policemen who had sustained minor injuries and both are perfectly fine now.”
Shehzad Ali denied being served any notices. “We were never given any notices and neither is my house near a waterbody, it is in the middle of a locality and a lake is about 1.5 kilometres away. There is an entire locality along the lake and my house on the other end of this locality.”
“The demolition is simply a reaction of the gherao of the police station and even in that I had nothing to do and was standing with the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) and yet my house has been targeted,” he added.
He also claimed that he had made a number of calls to senior police officers in the morning to check if he needed to give his side of the story or provide an material about what happened Wednesday, but he was asked to wait. Then, without warning, the Nagar Nigam staff came and demolished his house, he alleged.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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Mr. Haji Shehzad Ali follows the template to the T. No wonder he is a Congress party member.
This is the reason why the Congress keeps getting rejected by the people in election after election.
Rahul Gandhi’s “mohabbat ki dukaan” is simply an euphemism for letting loose such rabidly communal and radicalised people on the nation.