Citing ‘drug traffickers’, Delhi Police seeks to raze ‘illegal’ structures

Sources said the Delhi Police’s Crime Branch identified 102 structures across the Capital — each of these belonging to alleged gang leaders and kingpins of drug trafficking — after which police personnel conducted spot visits to identify alleged violations of building bylaws. Police then prepared a report on the alleged violations and asked the MCD to demolish these structures.

A senior police officer said that most of these buildings, spread across Northeast Delhi, Outer Delhi, North Delhi and West Delhi, belonged to people “who were arrested twice or thrice in the past and released on bail”.

“Most of these structures were identified after we arrested people on charges of drug peddling. Many of them ran their operations from their property,” the officer said.

The officer said the information was shared at a recent meeting of Delhi’s narco-coordination centre (NCORD) — a body that coordinates with the Centre on effective drug law enforcement — that was chaired by the Delhi Chief Secretary. At the meeting, the officer said, the Delhi Police said they had shared the list of 102 structures with the MCD for taking “necessary action as per building by laws”.

The officer said they had earlier tried to book these drug traffickers and seize their property under the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MACOCA), but many of these cases fell during trial due to lack of evidence.

“After a long discussion, it was decided that we need to adopt a different method to handle these drug traffickers. We directed our personnel from the Anti-Narcotic Task Force (ANTF) to make a visit to the property of the accused,” the officer said.

After drawing up a list of 102 structures, “we shared the details with the civic body (MCD), used photographs to identify and pin-point the violations of building bylaws and made requests for action to be taken against them,” the officer added.

Sources said the MCD representative informed the NCORD meeting that action had been taken against five structures and that the remaining were “under progress”. However, they said, senior officials in the meeting expressed their dissatisfaction with the MCD and termed their action as “cosmetic”.

The MCD also said that some of these structures were in the domain of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).

An officer said that at the meeting, the MCD and other agencies were told to “demolish the property completely rather than demolishing a window or small parts of the house. They have also been told to expedite the process of demolition… The MCD has been told to share its action taken report with the Delhi Police,” the officer said, adding that the Delhi Police was also asked to explore provisions, if any, in the newly implemented Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which allows for such stringent action against drug traffickers.

On September 2, a Supreme Court bench of Justice B R Gavai and K V Vishwanathan had pointed to concerns over bulldozers being used in some states to demolish the houses of people accused in criminal cases.

“It is a position of law. How can anybody’s house be demolished only because he is an accused? Even if he is a convict, it can’t be done without following the procedure as prescribed by law,” said Justice B R Gavai.

“We propose to lay down certain guidelines on a pan-India basis so that the concerns with regard to the issues raised are taken care of,” the court said.

The bench, however, made it clear that it would not protect unauthorised constructions. “Every municipal law has a provision for demolition of unauthorised construction… we are not going to protect any unauthorised construction or encroachment on public roads, not even the temples on the public road,” said Justice Gavai.