The family of Sanjeev Gupta, who was at the centre of a parking issue quarrel that snowballed into a communal tension in central Delhi's Hauz Qazi area, vouched for peaceful existence with their minority community neighbours for past two decades.
They said they were unable to give reason behind the developments following the quarrel as they had not faced anything like this before.
"We had Muslim neighbours for around 20 years and the environment was very peaceful. Nothing like this happened before," Kailashwati Gupta, the mother of Sanjeev, claimed.
On Sunday night, a fight over parking took communal colour in Old Delhi's Chawri Bazaar area, following which a temple was vandalised in the locality that triggered tensions.
The family had gone to some other place in the same locality for the night.
"We went to some relatives house to spent the night after Sanjeev was in police station to sought out the issue. We returned to our house on Monday at around 11 am," said Babita Gupta, the wife of Sanjeev Gupta.
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Sanjeev has four children, including three girls and one son. His eldest daughter is married.
"We have sent the children to other place for their safety. They will be brought back after soon," Kailashwati said.
The family wants peace and the temple should be repaired.
"We do not want any kind of fight here. We want that the peace must be brought back in Lal Kuan area and the temple which was vandalised last night, must be repaired," Kailashwati said.
Police beefed security on Monday to prevent any kind of communal clash in the area.
The senior police officers from the districts and some adjacent districts, including northeast, Shahdara, north, were present at the spot and trying to control the situation. The paramilitary force was also deployed in the Lal Kuan area of Chawri Bazar.
"I was sleeping in my room last night when some people gathered outside the temple and pelted stones. We were so scared and did not come to the temple to see it," said Bablu (40), who lives in the same street.
Saqib, a 27-year-old software engineer and local had said that "I have been living in the area from past 27 years and nothing like this has happened before".
People from both the communities do not want clash here. But some outsiders are provoking them which led to the tension in the locality for the first time, Saqib claimed.
The shutters of the shops in the area were down due to the tension which led to affect the life of daily wagers who were forced to take off on Monday.