A day after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker Pravesh Shukla was arrested for allegedly urinating on a tribal man in Kubri village in Madhya Pradesh's Sidhi, the district administration started demolishing Shukla's house on Wednesday, 5 July.
The accused's mother and other family members were seen begging the administration to not carry out the demolition.
Shukla was seen urinating on the tribal man, identified as Dashmat Rawat, in a purported video that went viral on Tuesday night.
The administration initially razed only a side portion of the house but later in the evening the officials started demolishing the rest of the house.
The Quint's sources on the ground said that heavy police force has been deployed and two JCB machines are tasked to demolish the house which is owned by Pravesh Shukla's father Ramakant Shukla.
Reacting to the incident, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan tweeted in Hindi, "NSA has been invoked, bulldozers are also working and if needed, we will even bury the criminals 10 feet under the ground. The message is clear, so people with wrong intentions think 10 times before committing crime in Madhya Pradesh."
Sidhi Sub-Divisional Magistrate RP Tripathi told the media that upon investigation, the house of Ramakant Shukla, father of the accused Pravesh Shukla, was found to be unlawfully constructed. Hence, the illegal part was demolished, he said.
"The accused (Pravesh Shukla) was arrested last night. He is in the lock-up and strict action has been taken against him. CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said that NSA will be registered against him. Bulldozer does not work according to Congress, it works according to law. It will work if there will be encroachment," state Home Minister Narottam Mishra had said earlier on Wednesday.
Madhya Pradesh Police has lodged an FIR against the accused under sections of The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The FIR has also invoked provisions of the National Security Act (NSA), 1980.
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