Tuesday, July 15, 2025
HomeSpecialsOpIndia ScoopsGujarat: Viral video shows dargah constructed in Heritage complex in Surat

Gujarat: Viral video shows dargah constructed in Heritage complex in Surat

The video shows that new stones are laid in cement and the person who shot the video alleged that the dargah has come up overnight and that the same did not exist till recently and had been constructed overnight.

A viral video shows a dargah inside the Heritage Complex in Surat’s Chowkbazar area.

The video shows that new stones are laid in cement and the person who shot the video alleged that the dargah has come up overnight and that the same did not exist till recently and had been constructed overnight. “Today there has been encroachment here, tomorrow it will be at your place,” the person in the video can be heard saying. The ‘dargah’ is one of Gaiban Shah Walid.

As per sources, when the police were approached for details of the dargah which was looking into ownership of the same. The police said that the ownership records show that the land belongs to three parties. One party is Surat Municipal Corporation, one is government land and one party is a private party. On being probed who the private owner is, Surat Police official said that it is a trust with 5-6 trustees. The police said that they have reached out to city survey for further details on ownership of the land.

One Ghanibhai Desai, Gordhanbhai Chokhawala, Yashwantbhai Shukla, Ishwarlal Desai, Chunibhai Bhatt are trustees which partly owns the land. Essentially, the land of Heritage Complex has three separate owners. Part of it is owned by Surat Municipal Corporation, part is owned by Gujarat government and some part is owned by the trust mentioned above. To find out where the dargah falls under the authorities will need to know ownership of that particular area from city survey.

However, from the above information is seems that the waqf has not yet laid claim on the dargah. While some local media reports claim that the dargah has been there since many years, it cannot be independently verified.

Surat Municipal Corporation body is Waqf property

In November last year, the SMC headquarters Muglisara has been declared waqf property. It was reported that since the building was used by Haj pilgrims in 17th century and since it was donated by a Muslim ruler, citing Sharia, the state waqf board laid claims. Supreme Court’s declaration that ‘once a waqf, always a waqf’ was also relied on.

Join OpIndia's official WhatsApp channel

  Support Us  

For likes of 'The Wire' who consider 'nationalism' a bad word, there is never paucity of funds. They have a well-oiled international ecosystem that keeps their business running. We need your support to fight them. Please contribute whatever you can afford

Nirwa Mehta
Nirwa Mehtahttps://medium.com/@nirwamehta
Politically incorrect. Author, Flawed But Fabulous.

Related Articles

Trending now

‘It’s a righteous deed to trap Hindu girls’: Naveed poses as Shiv Verma to trap, rape, and forcibly convert 18 Hindu girls in Shahjahanpur,...

In Shahjahanpur, Naveed and his brother Kaif ran a grooming racket, targeting at least 18 Hindu girls using fake social media profiles and recorded videos for blackmail.

J&K CM Omar Abdullah clashes with police to read fatiha at graves of ’13th July martyrs’: Read how they were rioters not martyrs, the...

The root of this entire uproar started by Omar Abdullah is linked to a date 9 decades ago, July 13, 1931. On that day, Maharaja Hari Singh's army shot 21 Islamic rioters inside Srinagar's Central Jail who had come to attack the jail and wanted to overthrow Hindu Maharaja Hari Singh.
- Advertisement -