'In UP, the police is executioner and judge'

'Javed Ahmed was no mastermind of the riots, and this is not mentioned in the FIR against him either.'

The Prayagraj municipal authorities on Sunday, June 12, 2022, demolished student activist Afreen Fatima's home.

The move came after riots broke out in Prayagraj after a protest against suspended Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma's comments on Prophet Mohammed.

Afreen's home was demolished two days later by the Prayagraj municipality, which stated that it was illegal.

The demolition happened after Afreen's father Javed Ahmed was declared one of the key conspirators behind Friday's violence in Prayagraj.

Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com spoke to Kamal Krishna Roy, advocate, Allahabad high court who has taken up Javed Ahmed's case against the local administration.

The Prayagraj municipal authorities say they sent a notice to Javed Ahmed in May that they will demolish his house as it was illegal. Is it so?

There was no notice sent about the demolition of the house.

They put up the notice on June 11 night and on June 12 they demolished the house. They did not give any time to the family to save their house.

In the notice that they served, they lied by stating that they had given a prior notice on May 12 -- which is not true.

These lies were all manufactured by the Prayagraj municipal authorities.

On what basis did the Prayagraj municipal authorities then demolish the home?

They said that the map's sanction was not taken by the family. And according to the Prayagraj municipal authorities, since the map sanction was not taken, the house was illegal.

If you do not construct a house on government land, then your house has its own compounding. This is according to law under the Uttar Pradesh Urban Planning and Development Act. And here compounding means that some penalty will be imposed (in case of irregularity) where the person staying in the house will have to pay a fee for regularising the compounding of his house.

The second option is that they can seal the house if they find some irregular activities happening in the house.

Demolition can only take place after the municipal authorities give a notice of 30 days to the person staying in the house. They give time to appeal before the commissioner. The municipal authorities should have waited for one month,but they did not do so and directly went on to demolish the house.

When was the first notice served for demolition?

The first notice was given on June 10, 2022. And it was given to Javed Ahmed who had no share in the house.

The house belonged to Parveen Fatima, his wife. She got this land as a gift from her father.

And surprisingly, the notice was given to Javed who had no property right over Parveen Fatima's property and who happened to be his wife.

He had no ownership rights over the property which was demolished.

But why did they demolish the entire structure? Was it completely illegal?

Illegal extensions like construction of extra terrace which encroaches on the road or, for that matter, some drainage pipeline obstruction can be demolished.

But you cannot go and demolish the entire house which is built on legal land. They razed the house to the ground and made it like a football field.

This is part of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's bulldozer policy .

The government now says pistols and other firearms were found inside the home. Does it not make your case weak?

First they went to arrest Javed Ahmed, his wife and one daughter. Afreen Fatima and her sister-in-law were not arrested, but told to leave the house, after which the government locked up the house.

Later on they got in municipal workers who took out all the belongings from the house and out on the road. This was recorded by hundreds of media-persons who were present at the site.

Everything was searched and every item was examined by everyone. Till this time, no pistol was found when photography was being done.

After the demolition of the house, all of a sudden they said they found pistols and objectionable literature in the house.

Also, when you do search and seizure of the house they keep some local respected man from the locality during the process or some house member. In this case, no third person was present when they did all this.

It is only a later that the government came out with this narrative of Javed being the mastermind of the riots that took place in Prayagraj on Friday.

But did Javed Ahmed have any role to play in the riots?

If you read his WhatsApp messages on that day, he tried his best to maintain calm and peace in the city.

He was a member of every peace committee which was created by the district administration.

He never had a single FIR against him in his life.

He had no criminal history recorded against him.

He had no anti-social image.

He was a small trader by profession. His credentials in society were very good.

His past record was only that he participated for 66 days in the dharna against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

There were hundreds of people who were sitting on the roads against the CAA and he was very active in society.

Is he being punished for the CAA protests?

Yes, he had nothing to do with the Friday protests. His messages say he was only talking of maintaining peace. He is a man of good credentials and his commitment is for secular society.

This entire case against him is planted. He had no role in the riots of Friday as his name is only mentioned in the FIR and he was no mastermind of the riots as the media says, and this is not mentioned in the FIR against him either.

And right now, he is in jail on the basis of the FIR.

But can the UP government take such action suo motu to demolish anyone's house?

This is not restricted to UP alone, but also to Khargone in Madhya Pradesh where they demolished 20 homes.

UP has this bulldozer policy. They believe in quick justice.

They do not believe in the rule of law.

For them the police is the executor and judge.