Mayawati slams house demolition in Prayagraj, calls it unjust and unfair

Flaying the demolition of the house of an accused in the Prayagraj violence case, BSP chief Mayawati on Monday said an atmosphere of "fear and terror" has been created and that the courts should take cognisance.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister also demanded that former BJP functionaries Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal, whose remarks against Prophet Mohammad, sparked protests should be arrested.

In a series of tweets in Hindi, Mayawati said, "By targeting a particular community, doing demolition using bulldozer, other malicious aggressive actions, crushing the protest, an atmosphere of fear and terror has been created. This is unfair and unjust. The court must take cognisance of the faulty action of targeting the entire family by demolishing the houses."

Her remarks came a day after the Prayagraj Development Authority (PDA) demolished the house of the alleged mastermind of the June 10 violence here amid heavy police deployment.

The building map of the house of the accused, Javed Ahmad, had not been approved by the PDA, according to an official of the agency.

Mayawati further said, "The root cause of the problem is Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal, due to which the honour of the country was affected and violence broke out, why no action has been initiated against them, and why the government ridiculed the rule of law? Not sending both the accused to jail yet is grossly biased and unfortunate. Immediate arrest is required," she said.

The BSP chief also said, "The government has disregarded rules, and carried out bulldozer demolition action in a hasty manner. In this not only the innocent families are being crushed, but houses of innocent people are also being razed. In this sequence, demolition of houses under the PM Awas Yojana was also in discussion, why such excesses?"

A body of advocates in Prayagaraj has also e-mailed a petition to the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court against the demolition of the house of the alleged mastermind.