To Let — Army rooms in Fort for Rs 1,000

In some cases the lower-level safai karamcharis and labourers without families also share their room with the tenants. The lack of identity cards has never been much of a problem for them as I-cards were rarely checked at the gates until the shooting took place.

From the cable operator, Titu, who gives cable connections to all the residential quarters and reportedly has up to eight boys working with him to the canteen-wallah who also has approximately the same number of helpers working with him, moving in and out of the Army area in Red Fort has never been difficult.

Colonel Bidhuri, Commanding Officer of 7th Rajputana Rifles posted at the Red Fort, said: “There is no sub-letting. We conduct police verification of every resident inside Red Fort during the Prime Minister’s speech on August 15.” When asked what the penalty for subletting government quarters was, he said: “The person will have to pay heavily.”

According to insiders, it may be possible that the highest authorities are not aware of what’s happening. “It is the Naib Subedar who has the keys to all the quarters who generally does the alloting,” says an insider. But, as most tenants are daily wage earners who are away during the day it ispossible they are not counted during the verification which generally happens during the day.

According to sources, often the damaged quarters that are no longer allotted to Armymen are sublet to civilians. The recent shootout and the resulting vigilance at the gates has made everyone hole inside. Red Fort also holds the Meena Bazar, a market with 39 shops, whose owners go in and come outside every day.

An area called the Hodson Lines which is inhabited by those working for officers was the first target of the Armymen once inquiries into the incident began. This is because the husbands of most of the maids living there work outside and often go out.

Colonel Shruti Kant, the Army spokesman, said: “There are some buildings inside that are owned by Archaeological Survey of India and the Army is not responsible if there are civilians living there. Red Fort is not a cantonment but a camp and the Army doesn’t own the whole of Red Fort.”

Lt Colonel S.K. Trivedi, Commanding Officer of the Sena Police posted at Red Fort, refused knowledge of any sub-letting happening. “If it is brought to my knowledge, I shall get them evicted immediately,” he said. He did addthat sub-letting of government quarters is an offence.