The Imam Bukhari of Jama Masjid on Saturday visited the rain basera for the homeless at Jama Masjid here on Saturday and allegedly asked the civic authorities to get its inmatesevicted by 5 p.m.
Sunil Kumar Aledia of the Centre for Holistic Development (CHD) in a written statement to the L-G and the media said: “The Imam entered the shelter premises with his security personnel and slapped the caretakers of both the shelters -- run by Aman Biradari Trust in Urdu Park and by Sajida Khan in Meena Bazaar.”
Mr. Aledia also alleged that “the women present there were spoken to rudely and foul language was used. Chairs were thrown and coolers broken. Children got hurt and the women and the girls got scared and ran for their life.”
Indu Prakash Singh of the Shahri Adhikari Mandir: Begharon Ke Sath (SAMBKS), another organisation that works for the homeless in Delhi, said: “The Imam came with an entourage of 50 people. They abused the homeless, broke coolers and asked them to vacate the premises by 5 p.m.”
Tariq Bukhari, son of Imam Bukhari, however justified the action. He said: “It is true that he initiated the action at the rain basera near the Jama Masjid and the Meena Bazaar. For the past four months he had been getting complaints of rising cases of looting and eve-teasing. ”
Mr. Bukhari said the Imam “himself went to check one rain basera and was shocked to see that it had become a hub for prostitution. One can easily get drugs and intoxicants such as cough syrups, spirit and solutions. He himself witnessed the act of prostitution at one of the rooms when he went in without informing. Imam Sahab revealed these things to the local populace during prayer congregation on Friday afternoon at the Jama Masjid.”
Mr. Bukhari added that in the rain baseras , several goods looted from railway stations are auctioned or sold regularly. Coupled with easy access to drugs etc., this, he said, is harming children as small as five years old who have been pushed into sniffing intoxicants. “Even boys from affluent families are getting trapped because of easy availability. Their families had been contacting Imam Sahab to do something about the same.”
He added that several children want to leave the drugs because they have seen some of their friends die recently.
“However, it is the drug mafia that is painting a different picture because it doesn’t want to move out from here,” Mr. Bukhari charged.
On behalf of the area MLA Shoaib Iqbal, his son Aaley Iqbal, also a Municipal Councillor, said: “We have just come back from Umrah (smaller version of Haj). So we don’t know much but the fact is that Meena Bazar and Jama Masjid areas have become the hubs for criminals and drug addicts. Only a week ago acid was thrown on a woman from U.P., but the incident was not reported. Only 10 per cent of the right people use , the rest misuse them.”
To this, Mr. Singh said: “It is easy to blame the homeless. We have filed a complaint with the police because these shelters came after the Delhi High Court ruling and they cannot uproot/evict them just like that.”
Mr. Singh also added that the police later apologised.“SAM is meeting the Imam on August 7 for resolving the issue amicably.”
