Top Delhi BJP officials met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the Union Home Ministry headquarters in Delhi yesterday, just hours after the Supreme Court halted a controversial demolition effort in violence-plagued Jahangirpuri.
Delhi BJP leaders that attended the meeting with Amit Shah
Amit Shah met with the leaders of the Delhi BJP. for an hour Adesh Gupta, the Delhi BJP chairman, MP Ramesh Bidhuri, MLA Ram Bir Bidhuri, and leader Maninder Singh Sirsa were among those who attended the meeting.
The Delhi BJP leaders remained tight-lipped about the talks. Mr Sirsa explained, “It was a routine meeting.”
Meanwhile, Adesh Gupta had written to Mayor Raja Iqbal Singh of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, requesting an anti-encroachment campaign in the region where communal skirmishes erupted on Saturday during a Hanuman Jayanti procession.
Moreover, Mr Gupta requested that the civic council locate and dismantle illegal structures built by “rioters.”
Hundreds of police officers and demolition squads came to Jahangirpuri early in the morning. A petition filed with the Supreme Court shortly after declared the drive illegal.
The Supreme Court will hear the appeal today, which highlights a troubling trend of communal conflicts followed by anti-encroachment drives targeting one community in states including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and now Delhi.
The demolition of Jahangirpuri was halted until an “urgent hearing” was held, led by Chief Justice NV Ramana.
The local body’s bulldozers, however, continued to work despite the Supreme Court’s ruling. Before the civic teams ultimately stopped on a second intervention by the Chief Justice, twenty stores were destroyed, as well as a wall and gate of the mosque at the centre of Saturday’s turmoil.
The anti-encroachment effort, according to a statement issued by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation last evening, was an attempt to clear pedestrian walkways and roads to ease traffic and pedestrian movement.
“Such encroachment removal drives on public roads are done on a regular basis by North DMC with/without notice under section 321/322/323/325 of the MCD Act, 1957 with prior information to local police,” according to the statement.
Also Read: SUPREME COURT ORDER HALTS ANTI-ENCROACHMENT OPERATION IN DELHI, 2022
