SC slams bulldozer brakes, but it comes too late for many

On June 27, district administration in Bareilly bulldozed a builder’s 12-room bungalow, reducing the structure and his children’s and grandchildren’s belongings to rubble for his alleged involvement in a gunfight. Days later, the houses of seven families in next door Moradabad were razed after a man was accused of orchestrating a dacoity and kidnapping . Today, both families are forced to live wretched lives. SC’s strictures against “bulldozer justice” may have come just a tad too late for many such families across India.

Builder Rajiv Rana’s granddaughter, Avantika, clung to her mother that day as bulldozers in Bareilly inched closer, drowning out the sounds of daily life. “I was six months pregnant, preparing a meal, and my mother-in-law was helping Avantika get ready for school when officials arrived, shouting our house was illegal and had to be demolished,” said Rana’s daughter-in-law, Maalu Singh.

By the end of the day, the three-storey home was gone, leaving Maalu and her husband Ashish burdened not just with EMIs as they sat cross-legged on the rubble of their former house, but frantically calling up relatives for help and shelter. When the house was destroyed, there were toys and books of the children inside, Ashish said.

In Moradabad, a similar story played out. Muslim Hussain, a 25-year-old carpenter, was accused of enlisting professional criminals to carry out a dacoity at the home of his married lover. That set off a chain of devastating consequences. Not only was Hussain’s house demolished, but seven homes belonging to his relatives were also razed by the district administration.

“That happened on June 30,” Hussain’s relative said. “We couldn’t explain anything to anyone. Why were we punished? Our houses were flattened with all the valuables inside. Our families now live with great difficulties, and some of the children have stopped studying. All for one person’s alleged crime. Where is the justice in this?”

Families left in the cold spoke to TOI not just about the trauma of seeing houses — often built brick by brick by their fathers and grandfathers — turn to dust, but also the discomfort that displacement brought and the shame that followed. One of them said, “We had relatives but no one rich or kind enough to accept us in their houses. We finally had to leave our native town. Our children either changed schools or had to leave studies. The old and the ailing in the family lost the touch of local doctors.”

In July this year, authorities, once again in Bareilly, demolished 14 houses and arrested 58 individuals after a clash during Muharram processions in UP’s Gausganj village led to a small riot.

Among houses razed for Muharram violence, one belonged to mason Mustaq Ali, despite no case against him. His wife said, “We had saved money for our daughter’s marriage. Everything’s lost.”