By Scroll Staff
Senior Congress leaders on Saturday spoke out against the punitive demolition of a Muslim man’s home in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Madhya Pradesh, describing the action as “the height of barbarism and injustice”.
The authorities in the state’s Chhatarpur district on Thursday bulldozed the home of Haji Shehzad Ali after accusing him of involvement in a mob attack on a police station a day prior. Four police officers were injured in the violence.
The incident reportedly occurred when a large crowd was stopped from entering a police station to file a complaint against a Hindu religious leader named Ramgiri Maharaj. The people were protesting allegedly inflammatory remarks that Ramgiri made against Prophet Mohammad while speaking at an event in Nashik’s Sinnar taluka last week.
In addition to bulldozing Ali’s home, the police raided 100 locations and detained over 50 suspects. At least 150 persons were booked in the case.
“Bulldozer justice is totally unacceptable, it must stop,” Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi said in a post on X. “If someone is accused of a crime, then only the court can decide his crime and punishment. But punishing the family of the accused as soon as the allegation is made, taking away the roof from their heads, not following the law, disobeying the court, and demolishing the house of the accused as soon as the allegation is made – this is not justice.”
She added: “There should be a difference between the law makers, the law keepers and the law breakers. Governments cannot behave like criminals. Obeying the law, constitution, democracy and humanity is the minimum condition of governance in a civilized society.”
This story was originally published in scroll.in. Read the full story here.
