FIR after scuffle in Tughlakabad over Ambedkar's statue

New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Tuesday said that it has registered an FIR under sections of the SC/ST Act after a physical scuffle over a statue of BR Ambedkar on a piece of ASI-protected land broke out between the local Dalit community celebrating Independence Day there and the Gurjar community that lived in the same area, here in Southeast Delhi's Tughlakabad village.

As per police, on August 15 they received a PCR call regarding gathering of approximately 150 people at the place near a statue of B R Ambedkar where the caller claimed that the said statue was installed unauthorisedly and there was no permission for anyone to come there.

Meanwhile, other PCR calls were also received wherein the caller informed that people of the Dalit Samaj were being stopped from unfurling of the National Flag near the statue by some people of the Gurjar community.

After police rushed to the spot, they found that an altercation had taken place between families of the Jatav community and the family of Jitender who belonged to the Gurjar community.

The issue, as per police, arised when the Dalit community were unfurling the flag but Jitender and his family claimed that they were entering on his private land by removing the 'Tripal' and 'Balli' which was erected by him to cordon off the land to prevent entry of cattle.

Hence, an altercation took place and around seven persons from one side and one person from the other side got injured in the incident.

An FIR has been lodged under relevant IPC sections and the SC/ST Act by the police, DCP (Southeast) RP Meena said, adding that enquiry further revealed that both the parties had an old dispute over the piece of land belonging to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and there have been several flare ups between the two communities in the past over it.

Furthermore, given that the land was owned by the ASI, the Delhi Police duly informed the SDM of Kalkaji and Conservation Assistant of the Delhi Circle of ASI about the encroachment of the land, who filed a complaint, following which a Non-Cognizable Report (NCR) was registered against Chanderpal and other members of the Jatav Mohalla.

But according to field visits of IFTU, the Gurjar community was also encroaching on the land and using it for their own purposes and hence had placed restrictions there.