Vrindavan, 2016.03.10 (VT): It has been merely five months since the attack on the ‘Bhajan Kuti’ of the Nepalese samaj, when it was razed to ground by the unscrupulous real estate speculators. Another such incident has come in light. This time the ancient ‘Khapatia Kunj’ or the Janrao Mandir at the Keshighat was the target of the land mafias.
Around one dozen people equipped with firearms, lathis attacked the Khapatia kunj at 8.30 p.m on Monday to evict the unprotected owners. They tried to get the rooms forcibly vacated and even misbehaved with the women. The resident of this ashram became very scared and hid themselves in their rooms. When the neighbors and the some security personnel from the nearby Laxmi Rani kunj reached the site after hearing the screams, the goons fled away.
The police was informed by the neighbours, but it reached one and half hours late. Instead of nabbing the culprits the police arrested the Janrao temple’s mahant Shri Jugal Kishor and his son Ramanuj on the charges of breaching the peace. They were sent them to the jail.
Land grabbing is very common in Vrindavan as most old houses are under disputed ownership and susceptible to forced take over. Those old properties are easy targets of the land mafias as most of them have shared ownership, split among the descendants of the zamindars. These owners often live in Bengal or in some other state far from Vrindavan and don’t have time to take care of these properties, which are often in a state of disrepair and filled with poor renters like rickshaw wallahs, laborers, widows and so on.
When the saints and other residents of Vrindavan came to know about it they gathered at the Khapatia Kunj under the banner of the Dharma Raksha Sangh to protest against attempts of grabbing the dilapidated property. They demanded immediate release of the mahant and his son.
Swami Ramdevananda and Mahamandaleshwar Naval Yogi, Mahant Prahlad Das and Acharya Ayodhya Nath jointly said, “the mahant of the temple has been living in this property for twelve generations. Now the mafias are trying to grab this property on the basis of the false papers. We shall not allow this to happen. We shall fight till the end.”
Mahant Prahlad Das and Acharya Ayodhya Nath said, “Several incidents of grabbing the property of ascetics have happened in recently. The government must take cognizance of the issue and protect the actual owners of these properties. If the government and administration don’t take action against these incidents, then the miscreants will be encouraged to commit more of the land grabbing from the unprotected owners.”
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