Jahangirpuri demolition: SC to hear case today; TMC to send ’fact-finding’ team tomorrow

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, April 21, 2022: The Jahangirpuri demolition in Delhi on Wednesday, April 20, has sparked widespread protests across India. Jahangirpuri witnessed back-to-back incidents of violence on April 16, Hanuman Jayanti, and April 18. The Delhi BJP alleged that those accused of rioting in Jahangirpuri had built ‘illegal constructions’ in the area and demanded that they be demolished. The North Delhi Municipal Corporation later announced an anti-encroachment drive in the region on Wednesday and Thursday.

 

The Supreme court on Wednesday, April 20, ordered a stay on the Jahangirpuri demolition drive on Wednesday itself. The SC then ordered a status quo on the demolition drive till it heard the case on Thursday.

Leaders of various organisations condemned the move, with AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi going to the extent of calling it the Turkman Gate (massacre) of 2022.

Here’s what has happened so far:

1. NDMC begins removing alleged encroachments from Jahangirpuri area on Wednesday.

2. Supreme Court orders stay on demolition. CJI NV Ramana steps in for the second time after demolition continues for nearly 1.5 hours after the order is passed. The CJI’s bench will hear the case at 11.30 am on Thursday.

3. CPI(M)’s Brinda Karat and Congress’s Rahul Gandhi call the ‘anti-encroachment drive’ “demolition of the constitution”.

4. The National Students’ Union of India at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi has convened a protest rally from the varsity campus to Kisan Chowk in Delhi at 9.30 pm on Thursday. The All India Students’ Union has also convened a protest at 2 pm on Thursday.

5. The Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, an organization of Islamic scholars, in its plea before the Supreme Court in the Jahangirpuri demolition drive case has sought the quashing of the NDMC order that called for police protection for the demolition drive and the drive itself. In another petition, filed last week it challenged the "bulldozing drives” in UP, Gujarat, and MP.

6. CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat has also filed a plea in the Supreme Court against the NDMC’s demolition drive in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri, alleging that the move had violated basic human rights.

7. The Congress will send a delegation to the affected areas while the Trinamool Congress will send a ‘fact-finding team’ on Friday.

8. Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) has termed the coercive ramming down of Muslim properties and places of worship in Jahangirpuri and other places as "vengeful abuse of state power". The organisation, alongwith other student groups including Fraternity Movement, Muslim Students Forum, Campus Front of India, All India Students Association, bsCEM and KYS protested against the demolition at Delhi University.

Courtesy: India Today