Why ‘bulldozer justice’ is contrary to the rule of law

In 2017, Harinarayanchari Mishra, then Deputy Inspector General, Indore and now Bhopal Police Chief, launched a massive drive against properties illegally built by gangsters, miscreants, land sharks and drug mafia on public land. The year-long campaign, which reportedly helped the police and local administration free land worth hundreds of crores of rupees from the clutches of around 300 anti-social elements, also included the state police. The campaign received broad support from netas across the political spectrum — both the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress. The then Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan lauded it during his Independence Day speech in Bhopal that year.

While the extensive use of bulldozers to destroy properties of suspects in criminal cases earned Yogi Adityanath the nickname ‘Bulldozer Baba’, which may have played a significant role in his repeat term in 2022, Shivraj Singh Chouhan was dubbed ‘Bulldozer Mama’ for doing the same after coming to power in Madhya Pradesh in March 2020.

Six months after he first led the UP government, Adityanath issued a stern warning to criminals operating in the state in September 2017, saying they would lose their properties. At that time, UP had the dubious distinction of being a largely lawless state. Over time, bulldozer justice became part of the core action plan in the state to instill fear of the law in the minds of hardened criminals.

In July 2020, the house of dreaded criminal Vikas Dubey — whose aides shot dead eight policemen during a botched raid in a village in Kanpur Dehat district — was razed to the ground. Less than a month later, authorities demolished two illegal buildings owned by gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari in Lucknow. The following month, authorities in Prayagraj demolished a house owned by former MP and gangster Atiq Ahmad as part of a crackdown on the then-jailed gangster’s illicit properties.

Adityanath himself had stated in February 2021 that the bulldozer drive helped the revenue department free up around 67,000 acres from land mafia during his first tenure as chief minister. The lands thus acquired were used on a priority basis to promote sports, he added.

In June 2022, authorities in UP demolished the house of political activist-cum-businessman Mohd Javed, reportedly after he gave just a day’s notice to vacate it. Javed was an accused in a case relating to violence in Prayagraj district over BJP leader Nupur Sharma’s insulting remarks about Prophet Muhammad.

In neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, during the 15-month Congress regime led by Kamal Nath (December 2018 to March 2020), large-scale bulldozing took place, razing to the ground illegal properties of prominent criminal suspects.

In December 2019, large parts of properties (including houses and hotels) of influential businessman and popular tabloid owner Jeetu Soni were demolished. As many as 64 criminal cases were filed against him in Indore. Soni’s tabloid had published a series of exposés on an alleged high-profile honey trap scam that had shocked the power centres when Nath was CM.

Just a few days before the Nath government fell in the state on March 23, 2020, authorities demolished a portion of a resort owned by former MP minister and BJP MLA Sanjay Pathak in Umaria district. The same wealthy Brahmin politician (who was earlier in the Congress) is said to have played a major role in pulling the rug out from under Nath’s feet.

The bulldozer justice system continued with renewed vigor after Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the longest-serving BJP chief minister till date, came to power in March 2020. The major/controversial cases during that phase included the demolition of houses and shops of the accused in the murder of a tribal boy, during violent clashes between Muslims and tribals in Raisen district.

In April 2022, dozens of ‘illegally constructed’ houses and shops (including some built under the Prime Minister’s Housing Scheme), mostly owned by Muslims, were reportedly demolished in MP’s western Khargone district, citing their involvement in the attack on a Ram Navami procession and subsequent communal clashes. The riots had claimed the life of a Muslim youth. In addition, a Hindu teenager suffered severe brain injuries.

In July 2023, parts of an “illegally constructed” house belonging to Pravesh Shukla, who was accused of urinating on a tribal chief in Sidhi district, were demolished. The same month, large parts of the houses of three Muslim youths and teenagers arrested for spitting on a Hindu religious procession in Ujjain were demolished as an anti-encroachment measure.

In January 2024, the prosecution and the prosecution’s key witness became hostile during the trial, leading to the MP High Court granting the accused bail.

The process of demolition justice continued even after Mohan Yadav became the new chief minister of Madhya Pradesh in December 2023. In the same month, around 10 butcher shops were demolished in Bhopal and authorities also demolished the houses of three men accused of assaulting a BJP worker.

In June 2024, 11 houses, reportedly built by Muslim families on government land, were demolished in the tribal-dominated Mandla district after police found beef in the refrigerators of some houses and the remains of slaughtered cows in others.