UP: SP MLA’s petrol pump demolished year after order, days after Yogi remarks

The demolition, on the basis of an order passed a year ago, was carried out three days after Ansari and some others were booked for allegedly making objectionable comments against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at a function in Bareilly district Sunday.

BDA Secretary Yogendra Kumar told The Indian Express: “Construction on the petrol pump started in July 2019. He was served a notice to stop the construction then. But he didn’t stop. After several hearings, in March 2021, the demolition order was passed. In compliance with that demolition order, the structure was brought down today.”

An MLA from Bhojipura seat in Bareilly district, and a former minister, Islam could not be reached despite multiple calls and text messages.

Kumar said the Bharat Petroleum petrol pump, located on the Bareilly-Delhi national highway, had been built without getting its structural map approved by the BDA. “After the notice was served, there were multiple hearings, at least five, and he (Ansari) appeared for them too. He requested that he would get the structure compounded (put up a fence) but he didn’t, and it was demolished,” the BDA official said, adding that they had followed the whole process. “The demolition order was only passed after due process for more than two years.”

Another BDA official said that apart from lack of clearance for its structural map, action was taken as “Kumar had also tried to encroach on government land”. “The demolition was undertaken with support from the local police.”

Condemning the demolition, the SP called the BJP “the serial killer of democracy”. In a tweet with a photograph of the demolished petrol pump, the SP wrote, “Malice, atrocity and destruction. This is a picture of the destruction of democratic system in UP. The BJP, which is the serial killer of democracy, is running its bulldozer of power over opponents, with the intention of revenge.”

Addressing party workers in his constituency last week, Ansari had said the SP was much stronger in the current Assembly than last, and that if Adityanath makes any “noise”, SP guns will “not emit smoke, but fire bullets”.

As a controversy erupted, the MLA said the remark had been taken literally, and “edited” by the news channel that aired it. Ansari said what he meant was that the Opposition was now much stronger and would reply strongly to Adityanath.

Police had registered an FIR against him, SP district vice president Sanjeev Kumar Saxena and some others on a complaint filed by a local Hindu Yuva Vahini leader. They were charged under IPC Sections related to the issue of threats, disturbing of peace and provocative remarks with intent to incite riots.

CM Adityanath was labelled “bulldozer baba” by the Opposition during the recent election campaign, for his government asserting its anti-crime credentials by citing use of bulldozers to demolish “illegal” properties. Adityanath had countered by saying there would be no let-up in his “crackdown” once he returned to power. In the later stages of the campaign, the BJP had parked bulldozers at several Adityanath rallies.

Since his return to power, there have been instances of officials using bulldozers and threats of demolition to get alleged criminals to surrender.

Islam won the Bhojipura seat for the third time in this election, defeating the BJP’s Bahoran Lal Maurya by 9,409 votes. He had contested the 2017 election unsuccessfully on an SP ticket, but had won the seat for the BSP in 2007, and in 2012 on a ticket from Tauqeer Raza’s Ittehad-e-Millat Council. Islam was a minister for Waqf in the Mayawati government.