This Article is From Apr 20, 2022

14 Teams, 9 Bulldozers, 1,500 Cops: How Delhi Demolition Was Carried Out

This is the first of its kind operation in Delhi just after an incident of violence like the one during Hanuman Jayanti.

Nobody was served any notice before the demolition.

New Delhi: North Delhi's civic body today demolished several structures in what they called a routine "anti-encroachment drive" in the violence-hit Jahangirpuri. The Supreme Court, responding to an appeal, halted the demolition and ordered an urgent hearing.

Here's your 10-point guide to this big story:

  1. The demolition started at 9:30 am and continued till around 12 pm. Several shops, construction in front of buildings, handcarts and even the outer gate of the mosque that was at the centre of last week's violence were demolished by North Delhi Municipal Corporation's excavators.

  2. 14 teams from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi carried out the operation using nine excavators.

  3. 400 cops were requested from the Delhi Police by the civic body but keeping the security situation in mind, more than 1,500 police personnel and paramilitary forces were present.

  4. Nobody was served any notice before the demolition. The North Delhi Mayor told NDTV that since it was an "anti-encroachment drive" and not a demolition, there was no need for notices.

  5. The North Delhi Mayor had just written a letter to the Commissioner of Delhi Police asking for security forces which he was readily provided with.

  6. This is the first of its kind operation in Delhi just after an incident of violence like the one during Hanuman Jayanti. The administration acted very quickly.

  7. The anti-encroachment exercise was ordered after Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta wrote to the mayor, asking him to identify illegal constructions by "rioters" and demolish them.

  8. While the Mayor termed it a "routine exercise", the timing of the order, especially since it came after the BJP's chief letter, prompted questions regarding political motives.

  9. Opposition leaders have slammed the BJP as the BJP-headed civic body carried out the demolition. While Congress MP Rahul Gandhi called it the "demolition of India's constitutional values" and "state-sponsored targeting of poor & minorities", Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha directly accused Home Minister Amit Shah of orchestrating communal riots and asked for his home to be demolished.

  10. Police have been keeping vigil in Jahangirpuri since Saturday's communal clash that broke out when a Hanuman Jayanti procession that did not have permission took a route alongside a mosque. Nine people, including eight policemen, were injured in the violence during which two groups threw stones at each other and shots were also fired.



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