BHOPAL: A day after a mob protesting alleged statements against Prophet Mohammad and Islam attacked a police station leaving many police personnel and a woman journalist injured in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur district, the local administration on Thursday bulldozed the palatial house of the man accused of having led the violent mob.
Just a few hours after Chief Minister Mohan Yadav asked the Chhatarpur district administration and police to act sternly against the perpetrators of the violence at Chhatarpur Kotwali police station, the administration bulldozed the house of Haji Shahzad Ali at a prime location in Chhatarpur (342 km from Bhopal). Officials said that the house had been built without permission.
According to Chhatarpur district police superintendent Agam Jain, as many as 46 named accused and 100-150 unidentified accused have been booked under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for attempt to murder, assaulting public servants, breaching public peace, rioting and causing damage to government property and also under provisions of the SC/ST Atrocities Act.
“Since Wednesday evening, countless raids have been conducted by the police across Chhatarpur district. So far, 18 accused have been arrested,” Jain informed.
Haji Shahzad Ali, along with his two nephews and the current Sadar of the community in Chhatarpur district Javed Ali, had allegedly led a mob to the Chhatarpur Kotwali police station on Wednesday to protest against remarks allegedly made against Prophet Mohammad and Islam by Mahant Ramgiri Maharaj in Nashik district of Maharashtra.
Those leading the mob had a heated war of words with Arvind Kuzur, who is in charge of the police station, and subsequently attacked it with stones. According to the FIR, those in the mob were not only pelting stones, but also carried weapons like swords.
The violence damaged property at the police station and left cops (three of them with serious injuries) and a female journalist Kalpana Yadav injured.
Justifying the demolition of the key accused's illegally constructed house in Chhatarpur district, senior BJP MLA and former Pro Tem Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha in Bhopal Rameshwar Sharma said, “What happened in Chhatarpur on Wednesday was similar to an act of terrorism. We hope that the police will act even better than what it did on Thursday, whenever any such violence happens again.”