Shaheen Bagh gained centrestage yet again on Monday as hundreds of locals protested and foiled a demolition drive of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC). With hundreds of locals besides the Congress and the AAP workers staging a protest, the SDMC had to call off its drive to raze alleged encroached structures in the area under its first phase of demolition drive.

An FIR was registered against AAP MLA Aamanatullah Khan and his supporters for obstructing anti-encroachment drive in Shaheen Bagh, the Delhi Police said.

The bulldozer returned without carrying out any exercise from Shaheen Bagh, famous for its anti-CAA protests.

The matter also reached the Supreme Court, which  refused to entertain a plea filed by the CPI(M) against the demolition drive in Shaheen Bagh. The court said  it cannot interfere with the anti-encroachment drive at the instance of a political party.

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai asked the party  to approach the Delhi High Court.

“Why is CPI(M) filing a petition? What is the fundamental right  that is being violated? Not at the behest of political parties. This is not the platform. You go to the High Court,” the bench said.

At the outset, senior advocate PV Surendranath, appearing for  the petitioner, submitted that the plea has been filed in the public interest and there is no “party interest” involved in the matter.  He further submitted that the second petitioner is a hawkers’ union and they are being removed without notice.

The bench said if hawkers are encroaching they will be removed and in case there is any violation of law by authorities, the petitioner can go to the High Court.   The top court clarified that it interfered in the Jahangirpuri demolition case because structures were being demolished. The senior lawyer said the authorities are demolishing buildings.

“We don’t know what are they demolishing? Hawkers also put up structures and as far as we know they sit on platforms. Let the affected party come,” the bench said.

Meanwhile, the SDMC official said bulldozers will be back on Tuesday and illegal encroachments will be removed in New Friends’ Colony from 11am tomorrow.

A senior SDMC official said the civic body has planned to conduct an anti-encroachment drive in all four Zones on May 10. In the Central Zone the drive will take place at Bodh Dharam Mandir near Gurudwara Road, New Friends’ Colony and surrounding areas. In the South Zone, the drive will take place at D1, D2 Market, Vasnt Kunj, Masoodpur Road, D6 Flyover, Delhi Jal Board Road and the surrounding area, he said. In the West Zone, the SDMC will conduct its drive at Ghode Wala Mandir  and  surrounding area, Raghubir Nagar, he said. “In Najafgarh Zone, the municipal corporation will perform its demolition drive at Nala Road, Sagarpur and BDO office and surrounding area, Chhawla,” he added.

The SDMC’s bulldozer reached Shaheen Bagh around 11 am amid a heavy police bandobast.  Paramilitary force was also deployed in the area to maintain the law and order during the drive.

At around 12 pm, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator Amanatullah Khan joined the protest at the area, amid the anti-encroachment drive.

“People of the area have already removed the encroachments on my request. ‘Wazu khana’ and toilets outside a mosque were removed in presence of police, earlier, he said adding that when there are no encroachments, why have they come here? Just to do politics?,” Khan said.

Congress leaders, including Parvez Alam, the media cell vice-chairman of the party’s Delhi unit, also reached the spot.

The protesters raised slogans against the BJP-ruled SDMC as well as the Centre and demanded that the action be stopped. Some of the women protesters even stood in front of the bulldozers to prevent the exercise.

Around 2 pm, the JCB bulldozer of the civic body was forced to leave the area following the protest by the hundreds of people gathered at the area.

The SDMC’s Central Zone Chairman Rajpal Singh told The Pioneer, the civic body was not able to conduct the drive due to the protests. The whole unit of the civic body was present on the spot.

“The municipal corporation will take the legal action against those who put hurdles in today’s drive accordingly. Civic officials have recorded the video and identified the people who are leading the protests. We will not let them get away with this,” Singh said.

“Everyone has a right to protest, but putting hurdles in the work of the corporation, stopping its bulldozer, climbing the bulldozer is anti-national act,” he added.

The SDMC lodged a complaint with the police against AAP MLA Aamanatullah Khan and his supporters for obstructing the civic body’s anti-encroachment drive in Shaheen Bagh on Monday, hours after state BJP chief Adesh Gupta asked the SDMC mayor to do so.

“It has come to my notice that local area MLA Khan and Councillor Abdul Wajid Khan have obstructed the government action. Hence, it is requested to you to please take cognisance of the issue and take appropriate action in accordance with the law and register an FIR against persons related with the matter,” SDMC Mayor Mukesh Suryan wrote.

Parvesh, a shop owner at the Kalindi Kunj main road in Shaheen Bagh, said the bulldozers arrived in this area at around 11:30 am, but left soon after as there were no encroachment. The shopkeepers have already cleared all the illegally encroached area. There was nothing to be removed. The bulldozers left without doing anything.”

Shaheen Bagh, which falls under the SDMC’s central zone, was in the limelight for being the venue of the sit-in protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in December, 2019. The protest was called off only after the Covid-19 pandemic hit the city in March 2020.

The drive comes after a couple of days Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Chief Adesh Gupta wrote to the mayors of South and East corporations seeking the removal of encroachments “by Rohingyas, Bangladeshis, and anti-social elements” in their areas.

In April, the SDMC canceled its anti-encroachment drive scheduled at Jasola and Sarita Vihar, due to the unavailability of an adequate police force.

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) conducted an anti-encroachment drive in the violence-hit-Jahangirpuri area just four days after communal violence broke out during a Hanuman Jayanti procession. The Supreme Court had to intervene twice to stop the drive and ordered the NMC to maintain the status quo.