Ravinder Phogat and his friends were travelling through Nuh as communal clashes raged in the city and they got intertwined with Anish, a local resident. He gave the trio shelter, offered food, and words of comfort, and then escorted them to safety. Six days later, bulldozers tore into Anish’s house
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — Six days after saving the lives of Hisar’s Ravinder Phogat and his two friends travelling through Nuh in Haryana, Anish’s house was at the receiving end of the local administration’s demolition drive targeting premises that were allegedly used by rioters to attack the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Brijmandal Jalabhishek Yatra through the city on July 31.
Phogat and his friends were travelling through Nuh as communal clashes raged in the city and they got intertwined with Anish, a local resident. He gave the trio shelter, offered food, and words of comfort, and then escorted them to safety. Six days later, bulldozers tore into Anish’s house, a report in The Hindu said on Tuesday.
Phogat, the grateful guest, made frantic calls to the police to attest that it was a place they took refuge in, not one from which stones were pelted on the VHP procession. But the damage had been done. “Anish did not have even 1% involvement,” rued the Hisar native.
Anish’s house faces the Gurugram-Alwar National Highway; a road leading from the highway to the right of his house was used by devotees to reach the Shiv temple in Nalhar two km away. Adjacent to a ceramic tiles showroom in Khedla village, Anish’s house was at the receiving end of the local administration’s demolition drive.
While asserting that action will be taken in any case registered in connection with the Nuh violence, Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij had said on August 4 that demolitions could also be part of the action taken against those involved: “Ilaaj mein bulldozer bhi ek karavayi hai (Bulldozer is also part of the remedial action).”
Phogat, a contractor, and his friends were returning from Badkali in a car after inspecting a road for which the Nuh Public Works Department (PWD) had floated a tender. They were met by stone pelters near Jhanda Park in Nuh around 1 p.m. “After covering some distance, we spotted the police and tried to pull over. But they asked us to not stop. We reached a tiles showroom and saw a mob in front. We ran for our lives and took shelter inside a house, which we later discovered belonged to Anish,” Phogat was quoted by The Hindu as saying.
While their car was set ablaze, the trio spent an anxious few hours with their Muslim host. Anish later dropped them off in his car at the PWD guest house in Nuh, where they stayed overnight and left for Gurugram and onward to Hisar the next day in Sohna BJP MLA Sanjay Singh’s car. They also filed an FIR in connection with the incident.
Before leaving, Phogat shared his number with Anish and extended an invitation to visit his Hisar residence someday.
The call came sooner than expected. On Sunday, Phogat was informed by his benefactor that his house was partially demolished by the district authorities. He tapped into his police and political connections. “I called the station house officer of Nuh city police station around 9 p.m. on Sunday and told him that Anish’s house was not used by the rioters and we were witnesses to it. I even sent a WhatsApp message to the Superintendent of Police,” he said.
Phogat then put in a word on Monday morning with Nuh BJP chief Narender Patel through his friend Gautam Sardana, Mayor, Hisar Municipal Corporation. It was all too late.
“After Bhaisaab got the call, he asked a senior official to halt any demolition of Anish’s property, but the drive was anyway stopped in view of the court orders,” confirmed Sanjay, Patel’s brother, the report said.
A small-time businessman who owns two trucks, Anish, a native of Khairthal in Rajasthan, had settled in Nuh three years ago. He wishes he knew about the demolition in time; he and his family were away when the bulldozers arrived and got a phone call only later from a friend. “I was never served any notice prior to the demolition,” he claimed.
____________
Photo Courtesy The Hindu: Shabbir Ahmed, vice-president, Mewat Vikas Sabha, in front of Anish’s house, which was demolished on Sunday.
