Tughlaqabad Fort becoming a den of drunkards

Tughlaqabad Fort witnesses huge crowd of onlookers in day time but it plays host to drunkards at night from the nearby areas. If they were not enough, pick pockets and snatchers have also started to plant their roots in and around ancient monument and they all enter the fort through forest area located behind it. Irony is that the guards posted for the security of the fort during night time are afraid of the alleged miscreants and say that most of the time they avoid fearing that the people drinking alcohol in fort during night time might be carrying knife or gun.

Investigation by The Pioneer was quite revealing as found that security guards posted to secure the protected monument are cahoots with the anti-social elements who roam around freely with gay abandon. It was also revealed that few guards posted at night time even consume alcohol with these miscreants.

This is precisely the reason as none of the cases of these rowdies is reported to the local police by the security guards. One can easily notice empty bottles of alcohol lying scattered all over the premises of fort adjoining the forest area.

“Most of the miscreants are residents of Tughlaqabad village just beside the Fort. These people enter fort from the forest area and sometimes seeing guard they run away from the forest. We  fear that these people might be carrying weapon and if say something to them they can even call people from village and anything can happen when villagers come together,” said a guard on anonymity as he was afraid of losing his job.    

On Monday, a Delhi University student turned a robber Vishal (24) to fund the parties that he used to throw for his friends at his house in Tughlaqabad village snatched a DSLR camera of a person who was clicking pictures of two budding models. The accused was nabbed by the police on same day in his village when he was allegedly trying to sell the camera. The accused has taken same route of forest to escape after committing the crime.

After the recent incident of snatching many residents living in the nearby area fear that these kind of crime would increase in future if left unchecked. “We fear in future such crime will increase. The government and police should take some step and close the forest route which is taken by these miscreants to enter and exit the fort,” said Aditya Okhade, a visitor to fort and a resident of Sarvodya Enclave.

When this correspondent tried to contact those running security agency, they refused to talk on the issue.  

Whereas the police official said that the police patrolling team have caught many persons during night time coming from the forest area located behind the fort. “We have nabbed few people several times and the area is large but whenever we see suspect people we definitely question them and also warn them,” said a police official.

It may be noted that Tughlaqabad Fort is a ruined fort in Delhi, built by Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq, the founder of Tughlaq dynasty, of the Delhi Sultanate of India in 1321, as he established the third historic city of Delhi, which was later abandoned in 1327. It lends its name to the nearby Tughlaqabad residential-commercial area as well as the Tughlaqabad Institutional Area. Tughlaq also built Qutub-Badarpur Road now known as Mehrauli-Badarpur Road.