Mumbai: The Maharashtra State Minority Commission severely criticised the demolition of the 90-year-old Digambar Jain temple in Vile Parle (E) by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Calling the act criminal, the commission observed that the civic body seemed to have an interest in rushing for the temple’s demolition.
On Tuesday, the state minority commission heard the complaint against BMC for demolishing the 1008 Digambar Jain Temple in Vile Parle’s Kambli Wadi. The temple was demolished on April 16 early in the morning before the High Court could hear the appeal to stay the demolition. The Free Press Journal reported the issue first and has been consistently following up the matter.
Commission Chair Calls Demolition ‘Criminal Activity’
The commission, under the chairmanship of Pyare Ziya Khan, took cognizance of the force used to vacate the temple and throw out the religious scriptures. He pulled up the BMC saying that their way of carrying out the demolition is like a criminal activity and also observed that the civic body seemed to have an interest in demolishing the temple. It has asked the corporation to file a reply about why a criminal offence should not be booked against it.
The chairman also observed that the demolition was pre-planned noting that the demolition order dated April 16 was signed a day prior. He also asked BMC to file a reply on why the paperwork for demolition was started before the civil court’s stay order dated April 8 was lifted. He also raised concerns over the BMC’s demolition activity early in the morning and asked the corporation to submit a reply about how many illegal structures have been demolished during early morning until now.
The commission’s vice-chairman Chetan Dedhia observed that the corporation did not obtain permission from the charity commissioner or consult the minority commission before the demolition. He slammed the BMC for taking action against the temple while it spared a hotel and restaurant in the same premise, whose owner is accused of influencing the demolition. The chairman has ordered the vice chairman for a joint inspection of the site to survey the hotel’s irregularities and the temple’s demolition. The team will visit the site today in the evening.
Commission Asks Cops To Assist Temple Trust In Filing Complaint
While the commission went smooth on the police, observing that they were only following the orders passed on by the administration, it directed the deputy commissioner of police (Zone-8) Manish Kalwaniya to assist the temple trust in filing a complaint regarding the stolen material from the temple.
Members of the Jain community alleged that the hotel operator has been using apartments in the society, where the temple is located, as hotel rooms and has carried out a lot of illegal construction. They claimed that a complaint has been filed against the hotelier in 2006 but BMC has failed to take any action against him. They also alleged that jewelry and money from the temple’s donation box have been missing after the demolition and a few devotees had to be hospitalised after being injured due to manhandling by the police.
Municipal Commissioner Summoned
The commission had also summoned the municipal commissioner Bhushan Gagrani but he did not attend the hearing. However, deputy municipal commissioner Vishwas Mote, on behalf of the corporation, apologised for hurting the sentiments of the community.
He said, “The society was not able to obtain full occupancy certificate due to the temple and it had become a liability of the society and the builder. Since they could not settle it, we were asked to interfere. We initiated the demolition nine times but could succeed only in the tenth try,” adding that the temple trust, society and the developer should sit together and sort out the matter.
