Clarion India
UJJAIN – A Muslim teenager, whose house was demolished after his arrest on charges of ‘spitting’ on a Hindu religious procession, was granted bail by Madhya Pradesh High Court over 150 days after his arrest on Monday, December 15, reported a news website Article 14.
The court granted bail to Adnan Mansoori, 18, after the witnesses had denied supporting the prosecution and the claims of the police.
Three people, including two minors, both aged 15 years, were arrested by the MP police on July 17, 2023, over the allegations of spitting water on Mahakal ki Sawari, a Hindu religious procession, that passed by their house.
A day after the arrest, the house of Ashraf Hussain Mansoori, father of two of the accused, was demolished by the MP police terming it a “dangerous structure”.
The minors were granted bail only in September 2023 by the Madhya Pradesh High Court after the juvenile court denied them bail on two occasions. The HC while granting the two minors bail found fault on the part of the justice board. It held that the board “committed jurisdictional error and illegality” in passing the orders.
An FIR was registered and the arrests were made based on the complaint of Sawan Lot, 28, from Indore who had joined the procession alongside his friends. The statement of Lot’s friend, Ajay Khatri, was also recorded.
Lot had accused Adnan and the two other minors of spitting on the religious procession. “This incident has offended my religious sentiments and those of the entire community,” Lot was quoted as saying in the FIR, adding that he had submitted two videos of the incident to back his claim.
However, the MP police only spoke about one video in the chargesheet, where a minor was seen spitting on the procession from the rooftop of a three-storey building. Advocate Devendra Sengar, who appeared for Adnan Mansoori, told Article 14 that the MP police failed to present the video in court.
Five months later, during a deposition at the court, Lot and Khatri denied witnessing the incident.
In a written statement to the judicial magistrate, Lot claimed that he was misquoted by the police who asked him to sign some papers and did so without telling why.
Lok stated that they learned of the spitting incident after the MP police picked them up and took them to the police station alongside a few others who took part in the procession. “I don’t know what was written in the FIR,” said Lot in his statement, adding that he was misquoted on several instances by the police in the FIR.
Lot also denied being acquainted with Mausam Jaiswal, the person who shot the video of the alleged incident.
The other witness, Ajay Khatri, stated that he was taken to the police station alongside 40-50 others and was called to the first floor of the police station after an hour where he was asked to sign some papers, which he did without the knowledge of what was written on them.
He also added that he did not witness the incident and neither could he identify the accused and that the police had misquoted him.
House of accused demolished
Following their arrest, a three-storey building, belonging to Ashraf Hussain Mansoori, the father of the two accused, was demolished by the MP authorities in Ujjain amidst the beating of drums and loud cheers by a group of people who had arrived to witness the demolition.
However, a backdated notice was pasted on the ground floor of the building half an hour before the police and administration arrived with a bulldozer to demolish the “dangerous building”.
The Mansooris, and a dozen other men, women and children, who had been residing in the building for years, were rendered homeless.
The small shop on the ground floor of the building, the only means of livelihood for the family was also demolished. The family, who has been living in a rented house for the last five months, recently restarted the business with minimal repairs.