Citing ‘drug traffickers’, Delhi Police seeks to raze ‘illegal’ structures

Sources said the Delhi Police’s Crime Branch identified 102 structures crossed the Capital — each of these belonging to alleged pack leaders and kingpins of cause trafficking — aft which constabulary unit conducted spot visits to place alleged violations of gathering bylaws. Police past prepared a study connected the alleged violations and asked the MCD to demolish these structures.

A elder constabulary serviceman said that astir of these buildings, dispersed crossed Northeast Delhi, Outer Delhi, North Delhi and West Delhi, belonged to radical “who were arrested doubly oregon thrice successful the past and released connected bail”.

“Most of these structures were identified aft we arrested radical connected charges of cause peddling. Many of them ran their operations from their property,” the serviceman said.

The serviceman said the accusation was shared astatine a caller gathering of Delhi’s narco-coordination centre (NCORD) — a assemblage that coordinates with the Centre connected effectual cause instrumentality enforcement — that was chaired by the Delhi Chief Secretary. At the meeting, the serviceman said, the Delhi Police said they had shared the database of 102 structures with the MCD for taking “necessary enactment arsenic per gathering by laws”.

The serviceman said they had earlier tried to publication these cause traffickers and prehend their spot nether the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MACOCA), but galore of these cases fell during proceedings owed to deficiency of evidence.

“After a agelong discussion, it was decided that we request to follow a antithetic method to grip these cause traffickers. We directed our unit from the Anti-Narcotic Task Force (ANTF) to marque a sojourn to the spot of the accused,” the serviceman said.

After drafting up a database of 102 structures, “we shared the details with the civic assemblage (MCD), utilized photographs to place and pin-point the violations of gathering bylaws and made requests for enactment to beryllium taken against them,” the serviceman added.

Sources said the MCD typical informed the NCORD gathering that enactment had been taken against 5 structures and that the remaining were “under progress”. However, they said, elder officials successful the gathering expressed their dissatisfaction with the MCD and termed their enactment arsenic “cosmetic”.

The MCD besides said that immoderate of these structures were successful the domain of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).

An serviceman said that astatine the meeting, the MCD and different agencies were told to “demolish the spot wholly alternatively than demolishing a model oregon tiny parts of the house. They person besides been told to expedite the process of demolition… The MCD has been told to stock its enactment taken study with the Delhi Police,” the serviceman said, adding that the Delhi Police was besides asked to research provisions, if any, successful the recently implemented Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which allows for specified stringent enactment against cause traffickers.

On September 2, a Supreme Court seat of Justice B R Gavai and K V Vishwanathan had pointed to concerns implicit bulldozers being utilized successful immoderate states to demolish the houses of radical accused successful transgression cases.

“It is simply a presumption of law. How tin anybody’s location beryllium demolished lone due to the fact that helium is an accused? Even if helium is simply a convict, it can’t beryllium done without pursuing the process arsenic prescribed by law,” said Justice B R Gavai.

“We suggest to laic down definite guidelines connected a pan-India ground truthful that the concerns with respect to the issues raised are taken attraction of,” the tribunal said.

The bench, however, made it wide that it would not support unauthorised constructions. “Every municipal instrumentality has a proviso for demolition of unauthorised construction… we are not going to support immoderate unauthorised operation oregon encroachment connected nationalist roads, not adjacent the temples connected the nationalist road,” said Justice Gavai.