Udaipur district government demolishes the house of a boy who allegedly stabbed a classmate, in Udaipur on August 17, 2024 | Photo Credit: ANI
A day after communal tensions erupted in Rajasthan’s Udaipur city, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government on Saturday demolished the house of a Muslim minor who allegedly stabbed a classmate, saying it was built illegally on Forest Department land. The department sent an evacuation notice to the family in the morning, and the house was demolished in the evening.
The city is limping back to normal after massive violence on Friday, when groups of people loyal to Hindu right-wing outfits set fire to cars, ransacked shops and malls, threw stones, and raised provocative slogans outside several mosques and dargahs. when trying to storm into them. On Saturday, the market was open and nothing untoward happened.
All government and private schools in Udaipur remained closed and the suspension of mobile Internet services was extended for 24 hours as the administration found it difficult to control the exchange of social media messages with false information and provocative content. Members of the Udaipur Bar Association formed a “human chain” outside the district court complex to protest against the incident.
The condition of a 15-year-old 10th grade student who was injured in a fight between two classmates is stable. Udaipur Collector Arvind Poswal said a team of three specialist doctors from Jaipur had arrived at the Maharana Bhupal Government Hospital, where the boy was admitted, to monitor his treatment in the intensive care unit.
A Muslim student who allegedly stabbed a classmate in the thigh with a knife has been detained under the Juvenile Justice Act and his father has been arrested. The specific charges against the child’s father remain unclear.
The boy’s house was vacated and the electricity disconnected after notifying the family. Though the notification gave the family three days to vacate the house, the demolition began at noon, with two bulldozers brought in in a joint operation by the Forest Department and the Udaipur Municipal Corporation.
A heavy police force was deployed in the Muslim-dominated residential area as a large number of people gathered there and there was an altercation with officials during the demolition. Municipal officials said the family had lived in the house as tenants for years. The house had three rooms, a kitchen, and a store in the basement.
The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) took strong exception to the “bulldozer justice” meted out to the Muslim boy’s family, while describing the BJP government’s demolition of the house as illegal, communal and discriminatory. The “pick and choose” approach of the State authorities clearly violates fundamental rights and principles of natural justice, PUCL said.
“There are more than 200 houses built in the area, but only teenage families in conflict with the law are targeted by the authorities to satisfy the lust of certain criminals who benefit from the communal tension,” said PUCL president Kavita Srivastava. Friends and relatives refused shelter to dispossessed family members for fear of action by the police.
PUCL has sought the immediate intervention of the Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court in the matter suo motu cognisance, said that the offense was isolated because it was given a communal color only because the boy concerned was from the Muslim community and the victim was a Hindu. “There is no law that allows the authorities to act in such a cruel manner. Even the Supreme Court strongly criticized this practice of ‘bulldozer justice’ when the incident was reported from Uttar Pradesh,” Srivastava said.
The PUCL is demanding transitional shelter for the evicted families, compensation for the demolition, and strict legal action against the officers who ordered the demolition of the houses. The PUCL said that the investigation in the criminal case should be monitored by the High Court as the Udaipur Police and administration had shown “extreme bias” against the accused even before the investigation.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) condemned the attempt to turn the fight between schoolchildren into a communal incident, while accusing the BJP of conspiring to spoil the atmosphere and target minority communities. CPI(M) State Secretary and Sikar MP Amra Ram said the act of vandalizing the Muslim boy’s house showed the BJP’s “cheap mentality” to gain political distance by fueling communal passions.
