Bareilly: On June 27, the district administration bulldozed a builder’s 12-room bungalow in Bareilly, reducing the structure and his children’s and grandchildren’s books and toys to rubble, for his alleged involvement in a gunfight. Just three days later, the houses of seven families in Moradabad were razed after a man was accused of orchestrating a dacoity and kidnapping.
Today, both families are forced to live wretched lives.
Though a recent Supreme Court ruling has ruled against this practice, now commonly called “bulldozer justice’, many families at the receiving end of such action say it’s come too late for them.
It wasn’t the sound of laughter or the chatter of children playing that filled the Rana household on June 27. Builder Rajiv Rana’s granddaughter Avantika, just four years old, clung to her mother, Maalu Singh, as the growl of bulldozers inched closer, drowning out the familiar sounds of breakfast being made and Komal, the youngest of Rajiv’s three children, reading aloud from books while she prepared for NEET.
Ashish, Rajiv’s elder son and Maalu’s husband, who supported his father in the family business and is pursuing post-graduation, explained the crime — a cross-firing incident in which two bulldozers were set on fire. Five days later, the bulldozers rolled in.
Maalu told TOI, “I was six months pregnant, preparing a meal when the officials came. My mother-in-law was helping Avantika to get ready for school. Suddenly there were officials everywhere, shouting that our house was illegal and had to come down. We tried to show them the papers. They didn’t listen.”
This story was originally published in timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Read the full story here.
