Bhopal: As a devotional Hindu song called Govinda Govinda blared over a sound system and drums were beaten under police escort, municipal officials in the western Madhya Pradesh city of Ujjain on 19 July 2023 razed a three-storey building belonging to Ashraf Hussain Mansoori (43).
It was razed within half an hour of serving a backdated demolition notice addressed to his dead mother, leaving a dozen men, women and children from three families homeless, most of whom had no criminal record and had not been accused of a crime.
The demolition came two days after a group of Hindu youth accused three teenagers, including two minors, of intentionally spitting on a Hindu religious procession from the roof of their building.
As rumours spread that Muslims had spat on the religious procession, many in the rally abused Mansoori’s family and Muslims in general, and Hindu fundamentalists gathered outside the local Kharakua police station demanding action.
On the complaint of one Sawan Lot (28), a “devotee” who came with friends from Indore, 55 km to the north, to join the religious procession, the Ujjain police arrested three teenagers under five sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860: 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings), 153-A (offence committed in a place of worship), 296 (disturbing religious assembly), 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) .
Two of the accused and arrested were Mansoori’s sons, aged 18 and 15. The third was their friend, also 15.
Five months later, on 15 December 2023, the complainant Sawan Lot, and his friend and witness Ajay Khatri turned hostile before the Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court, saying they had neither identified the accused nor had they seen them spitting on the procession.
In written statements, they deposed before the court that police had them sign on the complaint, even though their account did not match a portion of the first information report (FIR).
This story was originally published in article-14.com. Read the full story here .