Beef seized & homes razed — what led to demolition drive in Bhainswahi village in MP’s Mandla

While Mandla district administration maintains demolition notices were served to families in Eidgah mohalla of Bhainswahi village, villagers deny claim they were warned in advance.

IRAM SIDDIQUE

Bhaswahi/Mandla: Soaked to the skin, Roshni and her mother-in-law Sameena Qureshi stand on the rubble that was once their ‘home’. They use bare hands to sift through the debris of whatever is left of their steel cupboards, water cooler and other items they can sell to a scrap dealer to then buy two square meals for their children who sit nearby.

Roshni’s was among the 11 houses in Eidgah mohalla of Bhainswahi village in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandla district from where police allegedly recovered weapons for cow slaughter last week, along with beef stored in refrigerators.

In the aftermath of the recoveries, the 11 houses — all owned by Muslims — were demolished on account of being illegal structures.

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Ramesh Maravi, husband of the sarpanch of Bhainswahi, said Eidgah mohalla had become a “nuisance” the past couple of years and complaints were given to the police about its residents as way back as four years ago. “We cannot say that the demolitions were correct, but certainly everyone in the village is happy with the action,” he told ThePrint.

Officials maintain that the recoveries and demolition drive were unrelated and that the owners of the now-demolished houses were issued notices in advance.

Saloni Sidana, District Collector of Mandla, told ThePrint that owners of the demolished houses in Eidgah mohalla “were issued notices in the month of May and even in 2022”.

“Earlier, too, efforts were made to remove the encroachments considering that it (land in question) is notified as bade-chhote jhaadon ka jungle or grazing land in government records, but on many occasions, it was perhaps sensed that carrying out a drive may lead to loss of life, which should be avoided at any cost.

“But, on 15 June, after all the men of the houses escaped, the demolition was carried out because the houses were illegally constructed on government land,” Sidana added.

She maintained that all the houses on that parcel of land are illegal, and those still intact will be acted against in the coming days.

Maravi, however, denied having any knowledge of prior demolition notices and claimed he learnt of the police action only on Friday night when teams of officers went to the village and sought his assistance. “At first, I thought it might be some minor issue, but when I reached there, police were trying to put cows roaming around, into vehicles. Some refrigerators were seized and they had cow meat in them,” he said.

Ashar Warsi, an Advocate at the Indore High Court, told ThePrint that in matters of demolition, those accused of encroachment must be served a notice 15 days in advance and granted time to furnish a “reasonable reply”.

“It is important to note that these days the administration has made it a habit to demolish (structures linked to suspects/accused) immediately after a crime is committed. It is surprising to see that the administration takes cognizance of the illegality of any structure only once after a crime is committed, and not before that,” he said.

‘We are left with absolutely nothing’

Located about 30 km from Mandla city, Bhainswahi has some 160 houses, of which those belonging to members of SC and ST communities account for around 100 in the Patel mohalla. In addition to those, nearly 60 houses of Muslims, mostly Qureshis, are scattered about Eidgah mohalla and Masjid mohalla.

Days before the demolition drive, locals had intercepted a pickup vehicle dragging a cow by a rope at Dithori village on the outskirts of Mandla city.

A probe into the incident led police to Eidgah mohalla of Bhainswahi. According to Mandla Superintendent of Police (SP) Rajat Saklecha, a police team went to Bhainswahi Friday night in search of one Wahid Qureshi in connection with the Dithori incident, but he spotted the police and tried to flee. He was later apprehended and is now in judicial custody.

Subsequently, all houses in Eidgah mohalla were searched and weapons used for cow slaughter allegedly recovered, along with beef stored in refrigerators.

“Residents of these villages would throw cow bones and other dirt into Sarva river, which was used by others to bathe and clean their clothes. There was a lot of dirt and filth around their locality and everyone had been objecting to it,” said Maravi.

Eidgah mohalla, with some 30 houses, now resembles a ghost town — with nearly half of the houses here reduced to rubble, and those still intact housing occupants too afraid to step out.

Her house among those demolished last week, Sameena pointed to a mangled motorcycle that lay atop the debris. “When police came, they did not allow us to remove anything (from the house). When we tried to take at least the new motorcycle aside, they crushed it further and threw it away.”

“Let us assume for two minutes that we are all criminals and our houses were illegal and hence they demolished it. But is this the way to do it? Had they given us any notice or alerted us, we could have removed our belongings, moved someplace else and been able to rebuild our lives for our children,” said a sobbing Roshni.

“Today we are left with absolutely nothing, not even a pair of clothes for our children, who were soaked after the rain, to change into.”

She added that they learnt later that the district administration had issued demolition notices about a week ago. “There is some talk that notices were handed to the sarpanch, but why did they never reach us? Why did neither the sarpanch nor the district administration give us these notices?”

Currently absconding, Roshni’s husband Naseer is one of 11 men booked by the police under sections 4, 5 and 9 of The Madhya Pradesh Govansh Vadh Pratishedh Adhyadesh, 2004.

While section 4 prohibits slaughter of cow progeny, section 5 states that no person shall possess or transport beef of any cow progeny slaughtered in contravention of the provisions of the act. Section nine deals with penalties and states that whoever contravenes or attempts to contravene or abets the contravention of the provisions of sections 4, 5 and 6 shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, or with a fine which may extend to Rs 10,000 or both.

‘Should we sleep on roads in this rain?’

Listening to Roshni talk, Rasoolan Bi stepped out from one of the intact houses, which belonged to her daughter Naseema.

Rasoolan, who lives in Mandla town, had rushed to her daughter’s side upon learning of the demolition drive Saturday.

“By the time I arrived, the houses of my brothers Moin and Mateen had been demolished. I couldn’t help them. So I rushed to my daughter’s house and asked bade sahab (senior officer) if hers would also be demolished. He gave us an hour to remove what we could. With the help of my daughter and four granddaughters, I vacated the entire house within an hour, but later they said her house would not be demolished,” she told ThePrint.

She added that a policeman intervened as she tried to remove some kitchenware and grain from the debris of her brother’s house so that their children could be fed. “Wo police wala bola… Tere ko mein kal se dekh raha hun, bahut madat kar rahi hai sabki, zyada natak kiya toh agla ghar tera todenge aur agli baar seedha goli maarne ke order leke aayenge.”

(The policeman said… I have been watching you since yesterday, helping everyone a lot, if you indulge in a lot of drama the next house we demolish will be yours and the next time we will come with orders to shoot you)

With her son-in-law in Dubai and daughter and grandchildren now homeless, Rasoolan said, tears in her eyes, that she tried to move them to a rented house in Mandla town, but in vain. “Not only have the police warned others in the locality against sheltering us, but when I went to rent a house in Mandla, no one was willing to give us homes after being told that we are from Bhainswahi. Should we now sleep on the roads in this rain?”

Of the 11 houses demolished last week, one also belonged to Asiya Bi.

When ThePrint visited Bhainswahi Tuesday, she was seen retrieving from the rubble newly purchased utensils, a mixer grinder, and a clothes iron, among other belongings she had painstakingly collected over the years for her youngest daughter’s wedding.

Asiya Bi said she sought the help of her son-in-law Javed who used a hammer to sift through the debris and recover those household items. “If the police or administration had given us notices in advance, we could have removed these items from the house. And if the administration has demolished these houses saying they are illegal, are only 11 of the 30 houses in the mohalla illegal? What about others? Shouldn’t all be demolished?”

Asked how he saw the sequence of events, Warsi said on the one hand, a person is being tried for a crime with an FIR against him and immediately after their families are punished by demolishing their homes. “Punishing a whole family for one person’s crimes, giving double punishment to the accused, has become a pattern for the administration, popularly known as bulldozer justice, which is a sheer violation of constitutional values,” he said.

( by Amrtansh Arora)