47 yrs on, kin of 1978 Sambhal riots victim get ‘land cert’

Bareilly: Nearly 50 years after communal riots in Sambhal claimed around 150 lives and forced hundreds of families to flee the district, the UP govt has started resettling displaced Hindu victims on allotted land. Family members of late Ramsharan Rastogi -- a victim of the 1978 flare-up -- were among those who were given a 100-sqm plot in Sher Khan Sarai village.

“Bhoomi pujan (land rituals) has been done and now I will start building my house here. It is a dream for us which finally came true,” Ramsharan’s grandson Kapil Rastogi told TOI on Friday.

Ramsharan used to run a grocery shop in Sambhal’s Mohalla Mahmood Khan Sarai near Ekta police chowki. On March 29 that year, a mob descended on his shop, killed him, looted and set the place on fire. Ramsharan was thrown into a well near the shop with weighing scales and iron weights attached to him. His partly decomposed body was found three days later, bearing stab wounds and axe gashes on his legs.

“Hundreds of Hindu families had to leave their homes, shops and everything they built. They were forced to relocate to Delhi and other cities. Many never returned. Generations grew up without knowing their roots. They only have documents and memories of the scarred past,” Kapil added as he watched his mother, Rukmini Rastogi, receive a land ‘patta’ certificate from state officials.

On Thursday, minister in-charge JPS Rathore handed Rukmini -- widow of Ramsharan’s son Subhash Chandra Rastogi -- the lease certificate. Rathore also performed the rituals at the site alongside Rukmini and Kapil.

“The drive was initiated on CM Yogi Adityanath’s directive. It is open to all displaced families from the district. Those who migrated should come forward with their papers and contact the district administration. We’ll give land to all. Adequate land has been identified,” Moradabad divisional commissioner Aunjaneya Kumar Singh told TOI.

The resettlement initiative comes after Yogi, while addressing a public meeting in Mathura in April, invoked the 1978 riots and pledged to restore the displaced families’ land. He cited the case of Banwari Lal Goyal, whose shop ‘Murari Lal and Sons’ was allegedly stormed by rioters who broke the gate with a tractor-trolley and set it on fire. Banwari Lal and several others were “burned alive”.