Bulldozers raze down 'illegal' Indore temple days after Ram Navami mishap

Municipal and police officials were present at the temple premises to ensure the action was carried out without any disturbance

Four days after the stepwell roof collapse at a temple in Indore claimed 36 lives, the local administration on Monday morning launched a drive to remove encroachments from the religious complex and moved the idols of deities to another shrine.

The operation was launched at the Beleshwar Mahadev Jhulelal temple complex in Patel Nagar area here in Madhya Pradesh in the presence of heavy police security and barricades were placed on roads leading to the temple, officials said.

They said action was being taken to remove encroachments from about 10,000 square feet of land around the temple premises.

Meanwhile, a temple priest present on the spot said prayers were offered to idols at the temple according to rituals and they were shifted to Kantafod temple.

After the tragedy last Thursday, an FIR was lodged against Beleshwar Mahadev Jhulelal Temple Trust president Sevaram Galani and secretary Murli Kumar Sabnani under Indian Penal Code Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), Juni Indore police station in-charge Neeraj Meda said.

The two accused are facing charges that they had got an unsafe construction work done by putting a roof over the stepwell, due to which 36 people lost their lives, the official said. "The Indore Municipal Corporation had ordered the trust to remove the illegal construction at the temple complex, but the trust did not obey the order,” he said.

Thirty-six persons were killed when the floor of Beleshwar Mahadev Jhulelal Temple, built after covering a "bawdi" or stepwell in Patel Nagar area, caved in during Ram Navami on Thursday, hurtling devotees several feet below.

After the accident, the administration had closed the main gate of the temple and the route to the stepwell by putting an iron sheet.

Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath on Saturday alleged that illegal constructions carried out on the stepwell led to the Indore temple tragedy in which 36 people lost their lives. "This incident is a result of illegal constructions done on the stepwell, which has tarnished the image of Indore in the country and the world. If these illegal constructions are not removed within seven days, we will file a PIL in the high court to get them removed," he told reporters.

The former Madhya Pradesh chief minister alleged that the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) did not remove the illegal constructions around the stepwell due to political pressure from the ruling BJP. "Indore is called a 'smart city', but the local administration did not have the necessary equipment to rescue the people who fell into the stepwell after the accident," he said.

He said the Army was called in for the rescue operation 12 hours after the mishap, but it was too late by then.