On Thursday, 21st November, the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd (CIDCO) in the Navi Mumbai area of Maharashtra demolished the illegal Dargah built atop a hill at Panvel’s Paragon region. This comes almost a month after the CIDCO had assured action against the illegal dargah that was posing a potential threat to national security as complained by the local Hindu activists. The Dargah notably was located on the CIDCO property near the upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport site.
As per the local report by NDTV Marathi, the authorities at the CIDCO, with the help of the police and local administration, demolished the dargah of ‘Hazrat Khwaja Peer Karam Ali’ built illegally on its land. A massive police force was deployed in the area as the dargah that was illegally built on CIDCO land was removed.
CIDCO removed illegally constructed durgah on squattd CIDCO plot; Dargah at Panvel was overseeing the new Navi Mumbai airport n suspicious surveillance activities were noticed misusing religious construction which was posing serious security threat to airport!#NaviMumbaiAirport pic.twitter.com/g9dW0Ho3V6
— Legal Rights Observatory- LRO (@LegalLro) November 21, 2024
Local reports suggest that the caretakers of the Dargah knocked on the doors of Panvel Court after obtaining repeated notices from the CIDCO authorities stating that the Dargah had been illegally built in the year 2011. The Dargah authorities claimed in the court that the religious property was 200 years old and that it was not illegally built. However, they failed to generate substantial evidence to back their claims following which the court ordered the removal of the claimed religious property.
The CIDCO then on 25th October stated that it would take due action against the illegally built Dargah. Several Hindu organizations who raised the issue also further exposed that the encroachment was illegally constructed in the year 2012 by painting a few stones atop the hill. The said construction was then illegally expanded over a period of 15 years.
In the month of October this year, the Hindu IT cell, one of the Hindu organizations, wrote to the Ministry of Home Affairs complaining that an Islamic religious property had come up from nowhere near the Navi Mumbai International Airport.
“An illegal structure adjacent to the upcoming international airport is a threat to national security. Knowing the strategic importance of Mumbai, it poses a high-security threat. Although a notice has been served by CIDCO to remove the illegal structure, there has been no action taken by the authorities,” the complaint read.
Meanwhile, another Hindu organization, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, who had demanded demolition of Dargah in the year 2023, stated that around 1 acre of land was illegally captured by the Dargah construction. The organization said that the Dargah’s construction started just by painting a few rocks. However, later the construction was expanded to further build a compound, fountain, dome, water tanks, outhouse, guesthouse, and a parking lot.
The letter further said that the illegal structure was posing a potential threat to national security, given its location close to the Navi Mumbai International Airport site.
“It is often observed that when the issue of removing illegal dargahs, mazars, and other constructions is raised, the administration remains passive, citing law-and-order concerns. Whereas action is swiftly taken against other unauthorized constructions. It is crucial that this construction be removed, just like any other illegal structure,’ a complaint letter written by a Hindu organization to CIDCO recently read.
Following this, CIDCO assured action post-voting. A day after the voting for the Maharashtra Assembly Elections concluded, the authorities initiated action against the illegal structure.
