A day after the houses of three Muslim families were razed in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur district over allegations of stone pelting at a garba pandal, the family of one of the accused, a minor, alleged that the clash had been painted with a communal colour and was triggered by an incident of speeding. The Mandsaur district administration demolished the homes of the families on October 4, two days after a dispute between Salman Khan, 14, and Shivlal Patidar, a few feet away from a garba pandal in Surjani village. Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Sandeep Shiv told The Indian Express that the clashes between the two groups took a communal turn with stone pelting on the pandal, and that an FIR was registered in Sitamau police station leading to seven people being nabbed, including Salman. “The panchayat department accessed the documents and found that the houses of three accused, including Salman’s father Aklu Pathan, Sohail’s father’s Jafar Khan and Raes Khan were constructed without taking the building permissions. A notice was put up on October 3 and the houses were razed on October 4,” said the SDM. Shiva also said that the families did not produce any documents despite being given time. In the FIR registered on October 3, Shivlal alleged that he saw Salman speeding on his motorcycle on October 1 and complained about it to his father Aklu. Shivlal said on October 2, at around 9 pm, while he was standing near the pandal along with his friends, Salman along with his father Aklu and grandfather Hafiz Khan; Sohail Khan along with his father Jafar Khan; and Raes Khan with 13 others came near the garba venue armed with sticks and stones. The group began pelting stones on the pandal in which two other people sustained injuries, alleged Shivlal. Countering Shivlal’s FIR, Salman’s grandfather Hafiz, 62, claimed that it was on October 2 at around 6:30 pm, while he was seated a few feet away from the garba pandal, that Shivlal approached him to complain about Salman. “Salman then misbehaved with Shivlal. I slapped Salman. Then Salman’s friends arrived on the spot, followed by Shivlal’s friends who were armed with sticks,” he told The Indian Express. Hafiz said there was stone pelting from both sides. Calls to the police control rooms were made at around 8 pm and around 200 police personnel rushed to the spot. Raes’s mother, Shamabi Rahman, alleged that the authorities demolished her house instead of her son’s. Asked about this, SDM Shiv said: “The demolition was done as per the findings of the panchayat department. If there is any family who has any complaint, they can approach us.” A truck on the main road was also set on fire at around 11 pm. “When we tried to approach the police to register our complaint, instead of registering the FIR they told us that we will also be named in the FIR,” said a relative who did not wish to be named.
