House of Nagpur riots accused to be demolished today

NAGPUR: The house of Fahim Khan, alleged Nagpur riots mastermind now in custody, is set to be demolished Monday after he failed to remove the purported illegal structure within a 24-hour civic deadline. The action loomed even as curfew was lifted Sunday from all areas scarred by the March 17 violence.

The action by Nagpur Municipal Corporation against Khan's double-storied house in Sanjay Bagh Colony will be the first such razing of a riot accused's property by the civic body. It will unfold two days after CM Devendra Fadnavis asserted that "bulldozers will run, if the law permits". He was responding to a query on whether his BJP-led Mahayuti govt would follow UP CM Yogi Adityanath's model of delivering justice.

The demolition will unfold months after the Supreme Court imposed a pan-India ban on "bulldozer justice".

The SC last Nov had held that such demolition of a citizen's house without following due process of law, merely because the individual is a suspect or even a convict, will be "totally unconstitutional". The court laid down elaborate procedures for razing illegal structures and ruled that the state could not breach a family's right to shelter only because one of its members is accused of a heinous crime.

The demolition of Khan's house is expected to begin around 10am on Monday with heavy police deployments. NMC had issued notice to Khan on March 21 saying the 86.48sqm house, registered in the name of his wife Zahirunnisa, was illegal.

NMC officials inspected the house on March 20 and said it violated Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966. The officials said no building plan was approved, making the structure unauthorised. Despite complaints from residents about the encroachment, civic authorities had not acted so far. TOI has a copy of the demolition notice.

On Saturday, Nagpur police had sealed two shops after a probe found these were used by rioters linked to Khan's Minority Democratic Party (MDP).

Meanwhile, curfew was lifted Sunday from riot-affected areas after a nearly week-long turbulence, a day after CM Fadnavis asserted that 80% of the city was unaffected by the March 17 flare-up. While the curbs were done away, security measures were retained in some sensitive pockets. The death of Irfan Ansari, a 38-year-old riot victim, in hospital on Saturday stoked security concerns. The curfew relief has coincided with festive mood setting in with Gudi Padwa and Eid later this month, followed by Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti in April.