By Aiswarya Raj
Mussoorie Dargah Vandalism: Days after the Forest Department issued a notice to Wynberg-Allen School in Mussoorie seeking details of a dargah on its premises, the shrine was vandalised, following which an FIR was registered against three people.
The incident took place on Saturday at around 6 pm, when a group of 25-30 people forcibly entered the shrine, armed with hammers and crowbars.
This came weeks after a Facebook video went viral, in which a man claimed the shrine was on forest land. The video had garnered significant attention, and the Forest Department, taking note of the matter, issued a notice to the school and the Nagar Palika, as the shrine was on private forest land, the construction on which has been banned since 1980.
While the school responded saying the shrine, visited by people of all faiths, has been in the area for at least 30 years, the committee that manages the Dargah of Baba Bulle Shah said that it is more than 100 years old. The department had sought records from the Nagar Palika.
The DFO of Mussoorie, Amit Kanwar, had then said documents regarding the construction of the shrine would be sought from all the stakeholders before deliberating whether any action was required.
In a video on January 23, Hindu Raksha Dal’s Uttarakhand wing president, Lalit Sharma, said that if action is not taken by the administration by Tuesday, they would destroy the shrine themselves. “This is Devbhoomi, and Bulle Shah has no place here. It does not matter if it is private property; our concern is for Sanatan. We will go any time on Tuesday to demolish it. We are asking the administration and the school to remove the structure…,” he said.
However, according to a police complaint filed by a Mussoorie resident, around 25-30 people entered the shrine on Saturday and vandalised it.
Based on the complaint, an FIR was registered under BNS sections 196(1)(b) (acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different groups) and 298 (injuring or defiling a place of worship, with intent to insult the religion of any class).
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here.
