A mosque in Pipariya village, under the Bhojipura police station limits of Bareilly district, was demolished on the orders of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) court on Saturday, February 7, triggering objections from the mosque management, which said the matter is still pending before the Allahabad High Court.
The demolition drive continued for nearly three hours, during which two bulldozers were deployed to raze the mosque, spread over around 300 square yards.
After the structure was brought down, the debris was removed and the site was completely cleared. A heavy police deployment was made at the spot, with strict security arrangements in place to prevent any law-and-order situation. Following the operation, the district administration took possession of the cleared land.
Addressing the media, SDM Bareilly Sadar Pramod Kumar said the mosque had been constructed on Gram Sabha land and was declared an illegal structure following an official inquiry. He said the case was examined by the SDM court and, in the absence of any stay order from the judiciary, the demolition was carried out strictly in accordance with court directions and legal procedure.
However, the mosque’s mutawalli, Mohammad Iqbal, strongly disputed the administration’s claim. He said the matter is currently under consideration before the Allahabad High Court and that the next date of hearing has already been fixed.
“Despite the case being sub judice, the administration went ahead and demolished the mosque before the scheduled hearing,” Iqbal alleged.
Land belongs to whom?
According to an official revenue document issued by the Bhojipura tehsil administration, accessed and reviewed by Maktoob, a mosque existed on the land in Pipariya village as early as 1968, with the structure recorded as standing on approximately 300 square yards.
The document, bearing Receipt No. 11802 and stamped by the Office of the Tehsildar, Bhojipura (Bareilly), records the land as “gram samaj ki zameen abadi ke waaste”—for the use of the Gram Samaj’s population—over around 300 square yards.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.
