The authorities in eastern Assam’s Dibrugarh district used excavators to demolish the house of a man accused of driving an animal rights activist to suicide.
Officials on Tuesday said the accused, Baidulla Khan, had constructed the house illegally and violated safety norms.
“He neither obtained permission for construction nor were safety norms followed. The power lines almost touched the house built very close to the PWD road without maintaining a mandatory 12 feet gap between the house and the road,” district’s deputy commissioner Biswajit Pegu said.
Tension gripped a part of Dibrugarh after Vineet Bagaria, 32, was found dead at his residence on July 7. In a video recorded prior to his death, he accused Baidulla Khan, Izaz Khan, Sanjay Sharma and Nishant Sharma of physically and mentally harassing him and the members of his family.
The issue was allegedly the misuse of a commercial space the Bagarias own.
Following a public outrage, the police arrested Baidulla and Sanjay but the other two have been absconding.
On July 9, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited the Bagaria family and apologised for the indifference of the police to their complaints of harassment against the four people.
“Mafia came here despite your presence. I am really ashamed. I have never been more ashamed,” he had said, rebuking the local police officers.
The officer in charge of the local police station was subsequently transferred.
The razing of Baidulla’s house was the second such incident. In May, the administration in central Assam’s Nagaon district bulldozed the houses of at least five people who were in a mob that had set the Batadrava police station on fire. The mob had reacted to the alleged custodial death of a villager.
