House of man accused of thrashing tribal person demolished in Madhya Pradesh

The house was demolished days after the Madhya Pradesh high court said it has become fashionable to demolish houses without complying with the principle of natural justice

The authorities have demolished the house of a man accused of thrashing a tribal person and hanging him upside down in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul three months back. The assault came to light after a video of it went viral on social media.

A local revenue official claimed the house was demolished as it was illegally constructed. (PTI/Representative)

Sohrab Hussain’s house was demolished a day after tea seller Ashish Parte, 24, complained to the police that six people stripped, thrashed, and hung him upside down.

The demolition is the latest in a series of such actions in Madhya Pradesh. It came days after the Madhya Pradesh high court on February 1 granted compensation to two people after their homes were demolished in Ujjain without any notice.

The court said it has become fashionable to demolish houses without complying with the principle of natural justice. It said it appears that a criminal case was registered against one of the family members of the petitioners before the demolitions were carried out. “It is not the case of the respondent that in the entire area under the Municipal Corporation Ujjain, these are the only two houses that are constructed without permission to be demolished.”

In his complaint in the Betul case, Parte said one Rinkesh Chauhan took him to Hussain’s residence on November 15 and tried to extort money. Parte said they later asked him to pay money weekly. He added when he refused, they stripped him, tied his hands and feet, hung him from the ceiling, and beat him with a belt and a shovel. The accused also filmed the assault.

Betul police superintendent Siddharth Chaudhary said that they acted immediately after the video went viral and registered a case under Indian Penal Code’s sections 294 (using obscene language), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation), 342 (wrongful confinement), 327 (voluntarily causing hurt to extort property) and 365 (kidnapping) and under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The accused remained on the run.

Atul Srivastava, a local revenue official, claimed Hussain’s house was demolished as it was illegally constructed.