A year after Delhi Riots: Mumthas' legal battle against BJP MLA
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This February marks one year since the racist attack happened in the capital. This is the fifth part of Madhyamam investigation regarding the current status of the riot victims.
Mumthas from Khajoori Khas, Galli no.5, has earned the wrath of her people and community in the fight to prove the involvement of BJP-MLA in the Delhi Pogrom. As Gujjars around them joined the saffron party, most of the Muslims in the locality believed hoisting BJP flags on their houses would save them.
However, the highest number of homicides and attacks in North East Delhi occurred at galli 4, 5 and 39. One of them was the three-storey house on No. 5 Street, owned by Mumtaz, the owner of Sanchar Restaurant, looted by the rioters during the Delhi riots.
Mumtaz witnessed her house, once an election committee office, for a BJP MLA's victory, turning into ashes after being looted by the same MLA's followers. Mumtaz says she is indebted to Advocate Mahmoud Pracha for running her case free of cost when other advocates abandoned her. Mumthas explains that the fake case and following raid at Pracha's residence was his reward from the pogrom victim Mehboob Alam, one of Pracha's clients.
Mehboob Alam was framed in a fake case filed by rioters. After his release from jail in two weeks, he joined the police and the Sangh Parivar to become a complainant against Pracha. This forced many, who had filed cases along with Mumthas, to withdraw theirs.
However Adv. Mahmood Pracha stood firmly with her, ascribing the high court to clarify the steps taken against the accused, including the BJP MLA.
Pressure mounted on Mumtaz as the names of BJP RSS workers - including MLA Mohan Singh Bisht- were included as defendants. The violence, atrocities and arson in Khajoori Khas, wherein 45 houses, establishments, and masjid were destroyed, were filmed by her and submitted as evidence to the court.
On Monday, she received a telephone call from Khajoori police station asking if she had seen Mohan Singh Bisht with her own eyes. She replied Bisht was among the rioters and his driver threw explosives at her house. The police stopped the conversation after asking her to give them this in writing, again.
