Used a bulldozer to arrest rape accused, say UP police in SC
NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh police took a bulldozer to the house of a rape accused in Saharanpur to make arrests, an intriguing affidavit submitted by the state government in the Supreme Court revealed while responding to a petition that has raised alarm against unlawful use of bulldozers to raze properties on mere suspicion of involvement in crime.
The state government in its counter affidavit to a petition filed by Islamic cleric body Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind conceded that a bulldozer was brought to the house of the accused, Amir and Asif, in Saharanpur’s Chilkana to conduct a raid on March 31, 2021, to make arrests.
The state government was responding to an averment made in the petition that police in Saharanpur razed part of the house of the accused, asking them through loudspeakers to surrender within 48 hours, or else their entire house will be demolished. The Jamiat’s petition cited media reports and a video of the incident that went viral on social media. Police, however, justified its action in the top court, maintaining that the raid using a bulldozer was conducted to nab the accused from all possible hideouts and to maintain law and order.
After a first information report was lodged under gang rape charges on April 25, the affidavit said, the accused remained elusive and did not surrender despite several warnings. In the wake of the growing “resentment in the village”, police said, the station house officer of the area ordered a raid at their house.
“On March 31, 2022, police raided the house of the accused with force. But the staircase door of the house of the accused was shut from inside. The accused’s house is a two-storey house. On the basis of a doubt that the accused persons might be on the upper storey of the house and since the door was closed, a JCB machine (bulldozer) had to be brought for getting help to conduct the raid on the upper storey of the house to arrest the accused,” stated the affidavit.
Emphasising that the bulldozer was “necessary” to prevent the accused from escaping, police claimed the staircase in the house was partly damaged in this exercise “while reversing the JCB machine”. The father of the accused, Sharafat, has given in writing that the staircase was damaged when the bulldozer was being driven back and that the structure has been rebuilt, the affidavit added.
Contending that there is no complaint against the use of bulldozer during the raid, the state asserted that police arrested the accused as per law and there was no violation of any right.“Whatever action was taken, the same was necessary in view of the heinous crime like gang rape and it was done with a view to maintaining law and order. As a result, accused Amir and Asif have been arrested.”
The affidavit was filed on Saturday by Uttar Pradesh Police in a petition filed by Jamiat UlamaI-Hind in connection to a demolition drive by a Bharatiya Janata Party ruled municipal body in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri. The affidavit was supposed to be filed in another petition filed by the Jamiat, in which an injunction has been sought against the contentious practice of using bulldozers to pull down residential and commercial properties of persons suspected to be involved in criminal activities.