15th-Century monument razed: 5 Delhi Jal Board engineers issued notices

In the notice, the department stated that the engineers “played an active role in connivance with others for illegally constructing a residential building for then CEO, DJB… to please superiors… the officer was also aware of the fact that there existed a monument/heritage site/listed monument… and he assisted the (then) CEO and others for construction of residence … against all norms.”

The engineers to whom the notice was issued were Virendra Kumar, Chief Engineer (water) project-I; Deepak Srivastava, ACE (C)-I; Rajiv Sharma, EE (C) Dr-II; Anoop Goyal, AE (C) C/o EE (civil) plant and Lalit Gulyani, Junior Engineer (C) C/O EE (EAP) II.

In the notice to Chief Engineer Virendra Kumar, the department said “he was also personally as well as jointly responsible for restitution of the heritage monument to its original condition… By his omissions and commissions, the officer ensured the monument was not handed over to the archaeology department of GNCTD and instead got it demolished to please his superiors for his ulterior motives and gains…”

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Notices with similar charges were issued to other engineers. When contacted, Kumar said: “I’m not authorised to speak to the media.”

The DJB refused to comment on the matter.

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva Thursday wrote to L-G VK Saxena demanding a high-level probe into the razing of the monument. “It is shocking DJB carried out this blatant act of demolishing a protected monument during critical Covid phase of 2021 and thereafter speedily got a 600-sqm bungalow constructed there,” he claimed.

The monument that disappeared — only a gateway still stands — is in Southeast Delhi’s Jal Vihar near Lajpat Nagar. It finds mention in the ASI’s List of Muhammadan and Hindu monuments, Vol. IV and is called Mahal.