FIR against Senior Citizen (Lady) at Nehru Nagar Police station
This is about how a Society & Developer are using the Police to harass those who oppose them. To give a brief background, my mother who is about 73 years old has been living at the Nehru Nagar MHADA colony since 1972. The building is in the process of redevelopment but we are the only ones left who are fighting to have the redevelopment done in a legal and secure manner. For instance, the first agreement did not have any bank guarantee, rent or corpus fund mentioned. The area given in the agreement was much lower than the area that was in the Developer’s offer letter. As a result we protested and after nearly six months a supplementary agreement was made which corrected some of the anomalies but some fresh clauses were introduced without members’ consent. To cut a long story short, we complained to the Dy Registrar since the Society was not following the directives issued by the Co-operative Dept and also the Managing Committee was functioning without having executed an indemnity bond. As a result the Dy Registrar dismissed the managing committee & also observed that the Society had not followed its directives w.r.t. redevelopment.
Most members vacated their flats sometime in May/ June even though no IOD was received from BMC. My mother continued to stay in the building and one fine day on Nov 7 the Builder started demolition even though my mother was living there. We complained to the local Police who first refused to intervene saying it was a civil matter. We insisted that it was criminal since the demolition posed a danger to my mother’s life. Providentially couple of days thereafter a huge brick fell on my mother’s weather shed and when she ran out to check what caused such a big noise, she stumbled over that brick and twisted her leg. It was then that the Police registered an NC offence. We once again insisted that a FIR be registered since firstly the demolition was illegal (MHADA has to evict any occupant before any demolition can commence) and secondly with anyone staying in there it is criminal to demolish a structure as it could gravely injure the person. We also shared a medical report from Sion Hospital but even that did not help us in filing a criminal complaint. The Police did stop the demolition for a couple of days but thereafter the Builder once again resumed the demolition.
With our back to the wall, we then complained to the DCP Zone VI and after following up with him were we able to stop the demolition activity completely; a good one month after the demolition began.
Given that my mother and my brother were staying alone in the building we decided to vacate the premises due to security concerns (the flat was burgled when locked for a couple of day – a police complaint was filed). My mother vacated her flat on Jan 9th. My brother’s friend requested if his wife could use the vacant flat for a few days to carry out tuition to young children until they could move to an alternate place in a few days. My mother consented & the lady started her tuitions on Jan 17. On Jan 24, on a complaint filed by the Society’s Advocate Mr M R Phal, Police came to investigate and concluded that since we had not intimated the Police Station before allowing our premises to be used for giving tuitions my mother was liable under section 144 of the CPC. Thus an FIR has been filed against my mother. Strangely, despite the FIR being in my mother’s name, my brother was booked and I had to post Bail for him. The Police obviously realised that they could not book my mother so they conveniently booked my brother even though the Flat is in my mother’s name. And now they are calling the Parents’ of the children for a statement who were being tutored just for deliberate intimidation.
The FIR as well as the Police Commissioner’s notification u/s 144 is attached. It is really hilarious that the contents of this section are intended to discourage anti-terrorist activities, law & order problems etc., situations which are serious and grave. Does giving tuition without notifying the police such a grave offence that you actually file an FIR and then manipulate by booking another person just for the sake of intimidation?
The double standards of the Police are clearly evident. When we asked for an FIR to be filed when demolition was being carried out and my mother’s life was in danger no FIR was taken but see how prompt the Police was instead to file and FIR against her and book my brother who is actually not involved in any way.
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