The illegal structure constructed around a dargah/mazar inside the Heritage Complex in Surat’s Chowk Bazar area has been demolished by authorities.
According to sources, the illegal structure was demolished on Wednesday itself last week after authorities were made aware of the encroachment. OpIndia had reported earlier on Sunday that an illegal structure around a ‘mazar’ had come up in the Surat Heritage Complex building in Chowk Bazar. According to sources, the tomb itself has been around since a few years but the construction around had been done recently.
In a video that had gone viral on social media, newly laid stones with fresh cement work could be seen where the person taking the video said that the construction around the dargah had come 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.
It is not yet clear whether the state waqf board has laid claim on the dargah.