‘We deserve compensation’: Why victim of UP ‘bulldozer raj’ wants the Supreme Court to do more
Two years ago, after stones were thrown during a protest against a BJP spokesperson’s remarks about the Prophet, activist Javed Mohammad’s home was torn down.
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Last month, the Supreme Court called a halt to the demolition of properties of those accused of any crime – a policy used by several Bharatiya Janata Party state governments to punish anyone at will, especially Muslims. With the court poised to lay down guidelines for such demolitions, Scroll’s reporters went back to several victims of “bulldozer injustice” to document the toll of state action on their lives.
Javed Mohammad remembers staying up late into the night, more than two decades ago, to pour water on the bricks that made up the foundation of the house he was building. The more the water, the stronger the structure. The house was complete by 2005, and, over the next decade, Mohammad put his savings together and built another floor.
His home of eight rooms was spread over 200 square yards in Prayagraj’s Kareli locality, built on land gifted by Mohammad’s father-in-law.
It was not to last. In June 2022, bulldozers of the Prayagraj Development Authority rolled into the neighbourhood and demolished the house. The family was not at home: Mohammad had been whisked away to the city’s Naini jail a day before, and his wife and one of his daughters had been detained at the Civil Lines police station.
“It felt like a...
